Lord Joffe’s new Assisted Dying for the Terminally Ill Bill had its first reading (announcement of publication but no debate) in the Lords on 9 November 2005. This is the third ‘assisted dying’ bill tabled in the Lords in as many years. If passed it will enable ‘an adult who has capacity and who is suffering unbearably as a result of a terminal illness to receive medical assistance to die at his own considered and persistent request’. Put simply it seeks to legalise physician assisted suicide (PAS), but not euthanasia, along the lines of the Oregon Death with Dignity Act.
The introduction of this new Bill follows the debate on Lord’s Joffe’s previous bill of the same name, which led to a House of Lords Select Committee. The Select Committee reported in April 2005 and their report was the subject of a nine-hour debate in the House of Lords on 10 October.
The new bill is now available on the UK Parliament website here
An alliance of professional bodies (including the Royal College of Palliative Medicine, the Christian Medical Fellowship and CNM), disabilities rights groups and faith based bodies (Christian, Jewish, Muslim and Buddhist) have come together to form a new alliance to campaign for more and better palliative care services in the UK, and to oppose any weakening of the law that would allow physician assisted suicide in the UK. Where palliative services are good, and the physical, social and spiritual needs of the dying patient are met, requests for help in committing suicide or for euthanasia are very rare. In the Netherlands (where full Euthanasia is legalised) and Oregon (where assisted suicide is legal), palliative services are minimal.
The alliance, called Care Not Killing has a website at www.hopealliance.org.uk where action points, articles, facts and figures can be found.
In the meantime, Action points
Our first priority must be to influence the Lords debate early in the New Year. It is unlikely now that those who have already made up their minds will change them. Our biggest enemy is apathy in that Lords who might potentially oppose the bill will simply not turn up for the vote. So it is important that they are urged to turn up and oppose the bill.
Specifically:
1. Write to members of the House Lords around the second reading probably in the New Year urging them to oppose the bill and vote against it. A full directory of members of the House of Lords, along with the postal address, is available on the Parliament website by clicking here The full debate on 10 October can be read in Hansard on the UK parliament website here . If peers have already spoken against the bill thank them for the stand they have taken.
2. Argue specifically against the Bill. You will find Andrew Fergusson's excellent article on Oregon’s Assisted Suicide legislation, ‘Going West’, in the Summer 2005 edition of Triple Helix on the CMF website www.cmf.org.uk. Further information and briefing papers are on the Care Not Killing website or are available on request from Tanya Yeghnazar at tanya@cmf.org.uk. Write the letter in your own words and preferably keep it to a single side of A4.
3. Check for updated information and comment on the Joffe bill here
4. Educate others in your church about the issues.
5. Pray for all those involved and pray specifically that the bill will not proceed.
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