Ooops – the date is sooner and the urgency stronger!

In my last post I said the date of the Assisted Suicide Bill is 18th September – BUT IT’S SOONER THAN THAT – it’s on the 11th.  So the need to write to your MP is even more urgent. Helping someone to kill themselves is profoundly contrary to the Bible and denies the value of every person as an individual made in the image of God.

Do pray for balanced and fair media coverage of this life-and-death issue, that the arguments of the pro-euthanasia lobby would be discredited, and that the assisted suicide Bill will be defeated.

Many MPs say they are weighing the views of their constituents before deciding how to vote. So it is vital they hear from you. Please contact your MP today.

I’ve paraphrased Christian Concern’s points, and write them below for you to use in your email to your MP, if you wish:

‘Dear <name of MP>

I’m writing to ask you, as my Member of Parliament, to oppose the Assisted Suicide Bill that will be presented to Parliament on September 11^th.  If you have a surgery between now and then I will arrange to visit you in person, as this is a very important bill which, if passed, will have fundamental changes on how we value life in the UK. 

The Assisted Suicide Bill needs to be opposed because its affects will ripple far wider than the motion being presented.  In countries where is it already law, there are devastating things happening such as –

 In the  US state of Oregon, where assisted suicide is legal, patients have been refused expensive life-saving drugs and offered assisted suicide instead. Patients with a history of severe depression have also been offered lethal drugs under the law in Oregon.

In Holland, the Dutch regulator says it is out of control.  In the first seven years euthanasia expanded by 150%.  An 81 year old woman was euthanised because she did not want to go into a care home.  People with dementia have also been killed in this way. Dutch TV showed a video of the lady explaining that she was doing this to save her family money, and suffering.

In the UK, if assisted suicide is allowed many vulnerable people will feel pressured to end their lives for fear of becoming a burden on others. This would especially affect people who are disabled, elderly, sick or depressed.  Older people, in particular, often say they do not wish to be a burden.

The British Medical Association has warned that “there is no way to guarantee the absence of coercion in the context of assisted suicide”.

All the leading disability rights groups (including Disability Rights UK, SCOPE, the UK Disabled People’s Council and Not Dead Yet UK) oppose changing the law.

All the medical profession is against legalising assisted suicide, including the British Medical Association, the Royal College of Physicians, the Royal College of GPs, the Association for Palliative Medicine and the British Geriatrics Society.

The ‘safeguards’ in the Bill are totally inadequate and open to abuse:

Doctors are not required to know the person requesting assisted suicide !

There is no requirement for a psychiatrist to confirm the person is mentally competent.

In practice the approval of a judge will become no more than a formality.

The experience of other countries is that, once the law is changed in this area, there is always pressure for further liberalisation – e.g. Belgium introduced euthanasia for adults and has now extended the law to children. Doctors in Holland are now calling for euthanasia for under-12s.  In Belgium, it’s been reported that thousands of older and disabled people have been euthanised without their, or their families’ knowledge, based on the doctors’ judgement of their quality of life.   See the report by the Journal of Medical Ethics –  http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3120835/Belgian-GPs-killing-patients-not-asked-die-Report-says-thousands-killed-despite-not-asking-doctor.html#ixzz3d2eJ0xpt

It’s inevitable that if passed, activists will return again to unpick the restrictions it contains. For example, they will argue it is discriminatory to only allow those with terminal illnesses to kill themselves, for example.  Why not also extend the law to those who have dementia or who say they have ‘had enough of life’?  This is what is happening in Holland and elsewhere.

What value is being placed on human life, in this bill?  Britain will become a culture of death, not life.   

I’d be glad if you would acknowledge this email, and confirm whether you will be in Parliament voting on the 11^th September.

With respect and much hope,

Again – the vote will be held on Friday 11 September. Many MPs say they are weighing the views of their constituents before deciding how to vote. So it is vital they hear from you. Please contact your MP today.  A quick way is to go to notoassistedsuicide.org.uk

LET’S DO IT!

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