The BBC has reported this week
that the ITV Soap ‘Coronation Street’
is to run a story on assisted suicide centred on the character Hayley Cropper (pictured).
Hayley, the first transgender character in a British soap,
has been diagnosed with inoperable pancreatic cancer and the show has revealed
that as her health deteriorates she will decide she wants to take her own life.
Cancer of the pancreas is not uncommon: 7,065
people in England and Wales died from the disease in 2010.
However, the overwhelming
majority of those with pancreatic cancer, or in fact any other physical
disease or disability for that matter, do not want assisted suicide or
euthanasia but rather good care and support.
So this in itself means that Coronation Street is in great
danger of normalising an occurrence that is actually very rare indeed.
It is a widely held misconception that people with terminal
illnesses or disabilities are more likely than those in the general population
to want to end their lives.
In fact suicidal thinking is far more likely related to
feelings of hopelessness or worthlessness - existential or spiritual factors that
may accompany illness - rather than physical symptoms which can in the main be
effectively controlled.
90% of those
who commit suicide suffer from some form of mental illness including
depression, bipolar disorder, borderline personality disorder and alcohol or
drug misuse.
American psychologist Thomas Joiner,
has said that the three main factors causing someone to turn to suicide are:
- a perception (usually mistaken) that they are alone in the world and that no one really cares about them
- a feeling (again, usually mistaken) that they are a burden on others and that people would be better off if they were dead
- fearlessness towards pain and death
It is when these factors accompany
illness that people might begin to find the prospect of euthanasia or assisted
suicide appealing. But then our response, as with any suicidal person, should
be to address these issues, not to reach for the euthanasia needle.
It was for these reasons that when Emmerdale,
another TV Soap, ran an assisted suicide plot in 2011, the programme was not
surprisingly criticised by disability rights groups for misrepresenting the
lives and attitudes of sick and disabled people.
As I have
previously commented however, Emmerdale did eventually take a realistic
view about the huge ramifications for the lives and relationships of those left
behind after an assisted suicide and showed something of the huge emotional and
spiritual fall out for those involved.
The way the media handles suicide is incredibly important – as it may have the effect of either increasing suicides or preventing them – the Werther and Papageno effects respectively.
The way the media handles suicide is incredibly important – as it may have the effect of either increasing suicides or preventing them – the Werther and Papageno effects respectively.
The ‘Werther
effect’ refers to ‘suicide contagion’ or ‘copycat suicides’ resulting from
inappropriate media coverage of suicide.
However a recent paper in the British Medical Journal, ‘Papageno vs Werther
Effect’, has demonstrated that some media coverage of suicide actually
leads to a decrease rather than an increase in suicide rates.
‘Newspaper items accounting for (a decrease) form a distinct non-sensationalist class of suicide reporting. They follow the recommendations of the World Health Organization in reporting suicide—for example, avoiding terms such as suicide epidemic. Our findings suggest that media reports on individual mastery of suicidal crises are highly relevant in preventing suicide.’
In other words, media stories about how people coped positively with suicidal feelings actually lead to a decrease in levels of suicide in the general population – the ‘Papageno effect’.
‘Newspaper items accounting for (a decrease) form a distinct non-sensationalist class of suicide reporting. They follow the recommendations of the World Health Organization in reporting suicide—for example, avoiding terms such as suicide epidemic. Our findings suggest that media reports on individual mastery of suicidal crises are highly relevant in preventing suicide.’
In other words, media stories about how people coped positively with suicidal feelings actually lead to a decrease in levels of suicide in the general population – the ‘Papageno effect’.
The BBC, which has been justifiably called a ‘cheerleader for assisted suicide’ for portraying assisted suicide in a positive light, could learn some lessons from Emmerdale.
Let’s hope that ITV will too and that this new story in
Coronation Street will not act as a propaganda vehicle for the pro-euthanasia
movement and in the process push more vulnerable people over the edge by making
suicide seem like an attractive answer to life’s problems.
While soaps should not avoid controversial subject matters,
it is crucially important that this particular issue is presented in a
sensitive way and handled with great care.
Irresponsible portrayal of suicide risks being a recipe for
elder abuse and a threat to vulnerable people, many of whom already feel under
pressure at a time of austerity and who are worried about being a financial or
emotional burden on others.
Thank you Peter,a sane and honest view as always
ReplyDeleteI agree with the previous comment. May God bless you and all you do for Him.
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