Peers seek to legalise doctor-assisted death

Labour Lords table amendment to decriminalise act of helping the sick to kill themselves
BY SIMON CALDWELL
AN ATTEMPT to change Britain’s law against assisted suicide will be made in the House of Lords next week.
Lord Falconer, the former Lord Chancellor, and Baroness Jay, former leader of the House of Lords and daughter of Labour Prime Minister James Callaghan, will table an amendment to the Coroners and Justice Bill. A similar move by former Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt was defeated in the Commons.
They seek to change the law prohibiting aiding and abetting suicide when the Bill reaches Committee Stage in the Lords on Tuesday and Wednesday.
The amendment states that a person will not be prosecuted if they enable or assist someone intent on committing suicide to travel to another country where euthanasia is legal. It says that two doctors must certify that the person who wants to end their life is terminally ill and has the capacity to make the decision. The patient must put their request in writing in the presence of a witness who will not benefit from their death.
Baroness Jay said: “It’s a tragic anomaly that people who are giving a last loving assistance to a loved one find themselves under the threat of imprisonment.” Lord Alderdice has also tabled a similar amendment to decriminalise the act of helping a person to commit suicide.
The Government has stated its opposition to the hijacking of the Bill by the euthanasia lobby and Justice Secretary Jack Straw has vowed to reverse the amendments in the Commons if they are taken up by the Lords.
However, the Government has indicated that it will provide an extra day in the Lords so that all the amendments can be tabled. Labour peers will also be granted a free vote on the proposals rather than face a whip to support the Bill as it stands.
The amendments come after months of lobbying by Dignity in Dying, a group previously known as the Voluntary Euthanasia Society.
It also comes as the number of Britons seeking to end their lives at the Dignitas euthanasia clinic in Switzerland has reportedly reached 800.
Catholic peer Lord Alton of Liverpool described the proposals as an attempt to legalise euthanasia “by the back door” and the “classic thin end of the wedge”.
“This is the third time we have had an attempt to legislate in this way in this Parliament,” Lord Alton said. “We have had a full select committee, 21 hours of parliamentary debate and 10 sitting days of the select committee, three visits to foreign countries and at the end of that process the House of Lords has voted against the legalisation of euthanasia.
“It is almost as if there is an unwillingness to accept the will of Parliament and by a process of attrition to keep coming back to change the law. The medical bodies – the British Medical Association and the Royal Colleges – remain opposed to any change. They know it would change irreversibly the medical profession if doctors and nurses have to become destroyers of life rather than defenders. It will change the way palliative medicine is practised.” He said that the founder of Dignitas, Ludwig Minelli, had recently expressed his intentions to also offer euthanasia to healthy people.
Lord Alton said: “This marks the beginning of the creation of a death cult. It is not the terminally ill but the perfectly healthy we are talking about. This is like opening Pandora’s Box but there will be no hope left for people who do this.” His fears were echoed by Dr Peter Saunders, the director of the Care Not Killing Alliance, an umbrella organisation for more than 50 medical, disabled and religious charities opposed to euthanasia – including the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales. He said: “These moves are the latest steps in a longrunning, well-funded and carefully orchestrated campaign by the pro-euthanasia lobby to change the law on assisted suicide. The Coroners and Justice Bill is aimed at tightening up the Suicide Act 1961 to prevent the internet promotion of youth suicide. Ironically, Lord Falconer is attempting to hijack the Bill for a completely different purpose – to allow terminally ill people to travel abroad for assisted suicide. The clear intention of the pro-euthanasia lobby is to establish a beachhead for further assaults on the law in the next Parliament.” He added: “The present law is there to protect vulnerable people and Parliament has firmly resisted three attempts in the last five years to change it. The current law acts as an effective deterrent by ensuring that all but the most determined individuals do not seek to push its boundaries.
“But if the law were to change we would see a very different kind of case, where people who are depressed, disabled or elderly are placed under pressure, whether real or imagined, whether overt or subtle, to end their lives so as not to pose a financial or care burden to relatives or the state.
“This pressure will be particularly acutely felt at a time of economic recession with cuts in health spending imminent.” Dr Saunders said that if the amendments were passed in the Lords next week it would then be argued on grounds of equality, as it has in other parts of the world, that assisted suicide should be offered for chronically ill and disabled people who want it.
He said that it would be argued that euthanasia should be offered for those who are unable to self-administer lethal drugs, and that non-voluntary euthanasia should be available for mentally incompetent people, including minors, whose lives are judged not to be worth living.