Blair urged to change euthanasia Bill

Lord Alton of Liverpool asks Prime Minister to support crucial last-minute amendment as prospect of second Labour rebellion mounts
BY SIMON CALDWELL
THE PRIME Minister has been urged to support proposed last-minute changes to a Bill which could allow the widespread practice of “euthanasia by omission”.
Tony Blair received a letter from Lord Alton of Liverpool warning him that unless a loophole in the Mental Capacity Bill was closed it could become “a vehicle for the legalisation of euthanasia and suicide”.
Lord Alton, a Catholic, also alerted Mr Blair to amendments supported by a coalition of peers who want safeguards to prevent patients from using advance directives to compel doctors to starve and dehydrate them to death if they became mentally incapacitated.
Suicidally-motivated advance directives will allow patients to refuse food and fluids because sustenance was reclassified as treatment by the Bland Judgment of 1993.
The key amendment, tabled last Friday, states that “nothing in this Act permits or authorises any decision made with a purpose of bringing about the death of a person”. But it protects the principle of “double effect” whereby doctors might legitimately hasten the death of a patient by withdrawing burdensome treatment or administering painkillers as long as the intention was not to kill.
It also proposes a conscience clause to allow doctors not to carry out instructions that they believe to be morally wrong.
In his letter last week, Lord Alton said the amendment commanded widespread support in both Houses of Parliament and would “assuage the many real fears” that many people had about the Bill.
“I hope that the Government will feel able to accept it,” he told Mr Blair.
The Bill reaches its Report Stage in the House of Lords on March 15 and 17, the final of its stages in the second chamber before it is passed into law.
The amendments represent the last chance to change the Bill.
Not a single nonGovernment amendment was accepted during the Bill’s Committee Stages in the Lords last month and fears are mounting that a law will be passed that will permit the killing of people by the withdrawal of their food and fluid.
Among those rejected was an amendment tabled by Labour peer Lord Brennan, a Catholic, on behalf of Archbishop Peter Smith of Cardiff, chairman of the English and Welsh Catholic Bishops’ Department for Christian Responsibility and Citizenship.
The archbishop was concerned that in spite of earlier improvements to the Bill, it would still permit people to commit suicide and force doctors to collaborate in the act.
In addition to changes promised him by Lord Falconer, the Lord Chancellor, he wanted the Bill to explicitly state that advance directives could not instruct doctors to kill.
But Baroness Ashton of Upholland, the Constitutional Affairs Minister, told the Lords that such a proposal would be “unworkable”.
Lord Alton, in his letter to Mr Blair, pointed out that Archbishop Smith keenly supported the new amendments.
“I know that the Government has been working closely with representa tives of the Catholic Church, in particular Archbishop Peter Smith of Cardiff,” he wrote.
“Like many parliamentarians, Archbishop Smith welcomes the changes the Government has made to the Bill but remains unhappy with the Government’s failure, so far, to categorically rule out the possibility of the Mental Capacity Bill becoming a vehicle for the legalisation of euthanasia and assisted suicide.” Lord Alton then quoted from a note sent to him last month in which Archbishop Smith praised the amendment for stating “with precision both parts of the balance which needs to be maintained in the public interest”.
Lord Alton added: “I hope that the Government will support this amendment so as to ensure that the statutory framework we are creating will protect the interests of those who lack capacity in practice as well as theory.” The supporters of the amendment are led by Lord Walton of Detchant, a former President of the General Medical Council and Chairman of the House of Lords Select Committee on Medical Ethics which in 1994 examined euthanasia and recommended that it remained illegal.
They include a growing number of Labour peers, such as Baroness Findlay of Llandaff, Lord Ahmed and Baroness Howells of St Davids, who might give the Government cause to fear a second rebellion over the Bill. The first came in the House of Commons in December when the prospect of defeat was averted only by a letter from Archbishop Smith indicating that the Catholic Church was satisfied with an assurance given by the Lord Chancellor that the pro-euthanasia clauses would be eradicated.
As The Catholic Herald went to press, nearly 30 peers had signed the new amendment but Lord Alton said the list was growing daily. “We are getting a groundswell,” he said, adding that hundreds of peers would receive letters this week urging them to sign.
Supporters already include Baroness Chalker of Wallasey, Baroness Williams of Crosby, Lord Carlile of Berriew, Lord McColl of Dulwich, Baroness Masham, Baroness Chapman, Baroness Knight, Lord Patten and Baroness Blatch.
Phyllis Bowman of Right to Life, a campaign group which has worked closely with peers to get the Bill amended, said there was “every hope” of achieving success.
She said: “Our greatest fear is that the Government may schedule the debate so late in the day that that peers will have left the House before debating takes place.
“It is imperative that supporters throughout the country maintain the pressure in urging peers and MPs to support the pro-life amendments.” A spokesman for the Department for Constitutional Affairs said that the Government would respond to the amendment on March 15. Lord Alton said he had yet to receive a reply from Mr Blair.