ASSISTED DYING LEGISLATION ‘A STEP TOWARDS NON-VOLUNTARY EUTHANASIA’, WARNS FORMER CHIEF CORONER KC.
In one country it has already happened. A survey by Hull University in 2015 found that 13,000 elderly hospital patients had been euthanised by their consultants because of their subjective view of the quality of their lives without their consent or their families’ knowledge. It made the headlines in the quality ‘ethics’ journals.
Now Thomas Teague, KC, who was chief coroner of England and Wales from 2020-24 has said in a new report that safeguards promised by supporters of the Bill are not worth the paper they’re written on. Or words to that effect.
The safeguards promised by supporters of the Bill will not hold if it is passed.
He said, ‘Many of the safeguards promised … amount to nothing more than arbitrary restrictions, with no rational foundation. Reason demands their removal, compelling an irreversible expansion of scope that has already taken place in the Netherlands and elsewhere.’ (Telegraph 22/11/2024)
And a landmark report by the Policy Exchange think tank has warned the Bill risks leading to a slippery slope of unintended consequences.
In addition, a dozen human rights barristers and legal experts have warned that because of the country’s membership of the European Convention on human rights the scope of assisted dying in Britain could be rapidly expanded. Under the convention, they warned it could be ruled that denying assisted deaths to some groups and not others is discriminatory, leading to a huge expansion of legal death and human rights laws.
In Canada, medical assistance in dying (MAiD) is offered to older people in dire financial circumstances who say they can’t afford to live, and recently to a disabled veteran requesting funds to modify her home to meet her needs. She was offered MaiD instead. Just one example – there are many more.
The bill is prioritising the rights of individuals over the vulnerabilities of the disabled and elderly. I am amazed at Esther Rantzen’s stance. She launched the ‘Silver Line’ for older people to telephone and find help with their problems. She will have heard – how many ? saying they did not want to be a burden. She knows that if the Bill is passed and becomes law that they will feel pressed to ask for assisted suicide. She can probably afford for the best palliative care in the world. Yet she wants assisted suicide so that she can be in control of the time of her dying.
If this bill is passed it will change our culture, subtly and powerfully for the worse. People will look at those in wheelchairs and those needing help differently. It introduces the notion of intentional, deliberate killing of people by doctors.
Let’s ask God to stop the Bill.
