Lord Falconer – Assisted dying law has 'safeguards'

We use your sign-up to provide content in ways you’ve consented to and to improve our understanding of you. This may include adverts from us and 3rd parties based on our understanding. You can unsubscribe at any time. More info

Last month, Baroness Molly Meacher’s Assisted Dying bill passed unopposed in the House of Lord’s, meaning it will now progress to the Committee stage for more detailed examination. Speaking on her reasoning for proposing the bill, she said:

“The current law represents a legal fudge.

“It leaves a vacuum of choice and compassion which forces terminally ill people to take matters into their own hands and incriminates their families and friends for acts of love.

“We are not protecting dying people.

“We are abandoning them at their time of greatest need.”

Baroness Meacher is the chair of Dignity in Dying, a campaign group focused on achieving law change so that terminally ill people who are mentally competent can have the choice of assisted death.

This is the furthest that legislation such as this has progressed in the past seven years and in that time many more individuals and organisations have changed their minds on the matter, including the British Medical Association (BMA) which moved to a position of neutrality in September and Lord Frank Field who was opposed to the bill on religious grounds until he himself was diagnosed with a terminal illness.

Baroness Meacher’s bill has strict eligibility criteria; only terminally ill adults of sound mind have the right to request an assisted death and two doctors, as well as a High Court Judge, must be satisfied that the individual is making a voluntary decision with full mental capacity before the assisted death can be approved.

Across the world, over 200 million people now have access to assisted dying including in the US, Australia, Spain and the Netherlands, and with statistics from Yonder suggesting that 84 percent of the British public are now in favour of assisted dying, could the UK be the next country to pass this legislation?

The idea of assisted dying has been met with criticism over the years, from people suggesting that terminally ill people could be forced into it by friends or family, or that its legalisation could lead to a “slippery slope” where we end up with broader laws like in the Netherlands where assisted dying is also legalised for gravely ill children.

However, Sarah Wootton, CEO of Dignity in Dying believes the idea that the current law is protecting people is “nonsense” and that the “slippery slope fallacy” is always put up against any kind of societal progress.

She said: “People are taking their own lives in this country, or stopping eating and drinking, they’re starving and dehydrating themselves to death or asking people to help them.

“There are no safeguards at the moment. The blanket prohibition just pushes things underground.”

Dignity in Dying also believes that there is a fundamental unfairness in the prohibition of assisted death as legalising it would not make it mandatory or force it upon anyone but opposing it prevents those who are in favour of it from having a choice.

In response to suggestions that if assisted dying were legalised, it would become a ‘free for all’ Dignity in Dying asks critics to look at evidence from other countries that have legalised assisted dying for people with terminal illnesses such as America and Australia, where assisted dying accounts for only one per cent of deaths.

DON’T MISS:City of London boss predicts Brexit victory in blow for Macron

Remoaner Adonis slammed for refusing to accept Brexit

Beaune takes on ‘bonecrusher’ stance with Frost

In countries with broader laws such as the Benelux countries where anyone with ‘unbearable suffering’ meets the criteria, five per cent of deaths are assisted.

Ms Wootton also set up a sister charity to Dignity in Dying in 2008 called Compassion in Dying which provides advice and support surrounding legal end of life choices for terminally ill people, such as providing living wills and helping people to understand how they can control their death.

She said the golden thread that runs through both of her organisations is pushing the decision making at the end of life into the patient’s hands.

She said: “My whole philosophy is that we need to trust dying people that they know what’s right for themselves.]##

“Lots of dying people have said to me that they really, really want this choice.

“This is something that the vast majority of dying people want.

“And of course, for those who don’t want it, they don’t have to choose it.

“I think there have been big developments in the campaign in the UK, particularly recently. I think that the last couple of years have shown that the status quo isn’t working. And that we are going to get law reform.

“It’s a question of when not if.”

Source: Read Full Article