Debating assisted suicide

Jul 12 2009 Sunday Sun

CONTROVERSIAL plans to remove the threat of prosecution to those who take terminally-ill loved ones abroad to die have been defeated at the House of Lords.

MIKE KELLY spoke to three people involved in the assisted suicide debate.

Jo Cartwright, Dignity in Dying

Alongside access to better end-of-life care, we at Dignity in Dying support and campaign for the choice of assisted dying for terminally ill, mentally competent adults, within strict legal safeguards, if they feel their suffering has become unbearable.

Opinion polls consistently show overwhelming public support for a change in the law (80 per cent according to the British Social Attitudes Survey, 2007).

We hear from many people who have a strong religious faith or are themselves disabled, who fully support a change in the law and are angered that their viewpoints are being misrepresented.

Due to a lack of a safeguarded choice some terminally ill adults are forced into desperate and often dangerous measures, including travelling abroad to die, there are botched suicide attempts, ‘mercy killings’, and some doctors already assist their patients to die at great potential cost to their livelihood and freedom. The issue of people travelling abroad to die was the one Lord Falconer was attempting to safeguard with his amendment.

At present, it is legal for people to travel abroad for an assisted death, and non-terminally ill, non competent people are doing so at an ever increasing rate. We can't regulate foreign assisted dying clinics but we can address the law in this country. By amending the law to allow terminally ill adults to be accompanied if they are making the decision to go freely would have added safeguards to a currently unregulated law.

People often raise concerns with us about the need to protect vulnerable people, but at present the law is failing to do this. A more regulated approach with carefully considered safeguards would protect the vulnerable and offer greater choice and control to those suffering at the end of their lives.

We need recognise that the status quo is unacceptable and move forward with a carefully considered solution to the current issues with the law.

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