Protestors line up to oppose Assisted Dying Bill
-12/05/06
Protest organisers are pred
Protestors line up to oppose Assisted Dying Bill
-12/05/06
Protest organisers are predicting that thousands will descend on parliament at lunchtime on Friday 12 May 2006, to voice opposition to Lord Joffe’s Assisted Dying Bill, which is being debated and voted on in the House of Lords.
According to Independent Catholic News, one group will be presenting a petition to 10 Downing Street signed by more than 100,000 people in just four weeks. Hundreds of other representatives of UK faith groups, doctors and nurses, and disability campaigners have been delivering letters to MPs over the last few weeks.
Critics of the Assisted Dying Bill say it is a slippery slope to ìfull-blown euthanasiaî for elderly, depressed and seriously-ill patients. But supporters say it is a carefully restrictive and compassionate measure allowing proper choice for those with terminal illnesses to die with dignity.
Campaigners against the Bill argue that it would create scope for abuse ? such as the killing of disabled babies and the sanctioning of involuntary euthanasia. Proponents say this is highly irresponsible scare-mongering with no factual basis.
Care Not Killing, which represents more than 32 charities and health care groups, is warning that the Joffe Bill would put the old and the sick under intolerable pressure to end their lives, not least because of severe pressures on health and long-term care services.
The group was launched on 31 January 2006. Members include the Association for Palliative Medicine of Great Britain and Ireland, the British Council of Disabled People, RADAR, the Christian Medical Fellowship and the Medical Ethics Alliance.
CNK campaign director Dr Peter Saunders said: ìWe believe that this is a very bad Bill and one that would create great problems for old and sick patients and the medical and nursing professions. Over the past few days as the public has become aware of the issues at stake, people have been signing our petition opposing the Bill at the rate of 10,000 a day. More than 100,000 people have signed the petition we will present to Downing Streetî.
He continues: ìAgainst this background of popular dissent, we believe it is right that the House of Lords should pass judgement by holding a vote at second reading and halting moves to legalise euthanasia in the UK. It is time to take a stand against this grossly misguided measure.î
Jane Campbell, convenor of Not Dead Yet UK, a new coalition, said: “”We oppose Lord Joffe’s Assisted Dying for the Terminally Ill Bill because it is damaging and dangerous to terminally ill and disabled peopleÖ [I]t feeds the myth that our lives are not worth living. If assisted dying is legalised it will create pressure, particularly on those who are newly disabled, to end their lives.î
Surveys of the Royal College of Physicians, the Royal College of General Practitioners, the Association for Palliative Medicine and the British Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons have all produced majorities of doctors against the Bill. And no major disability organisation has backed it.
The Disability Rights Commission ìbelieves it would be a mistake to support assisted dying because of particularly complex individual cases in a society that does not recognise disabled people as equal citizens nor provide the services and support we believe are fundamental before assisted dying is legalised.î
But supporters of the current Bill say that the majority of the public back change and that opponents are clouding careful examination of what is being put forward by melodramatic rhetoric. Earlier this week, as reported on Ekklesia, the British Humanist Association published a report, ëIn Bad Faithí, which accuses Christian campaigning groups of acting irresponsibly, and not being representative of public or Christian opinion.
It also says that the voices of Christians who support the Bill, like the Modern Churchpeopleís Union (MCU), are being effectively silenced.
The Church of England and the Roman Catholic Bishops Conference in England and Wales have come out strongly against the Joffe Bill. But Anglican bishops agreed that withholding excessive medical treatment when there is no “reasonable prospect of recovery was consistent with Christian principals” at the 1998 Lambeth conference.
And Canon Robin Gill, a professor of modern theology at the University of Kent, has been reported as saying that people who help terminally ill relatives who are in great pain to end their lives should not be prosecuted. In 1998 he edited a book entitled Euthanasia and the Churches and the following year he carried out research on regular churchgoers, published in 2000, which concluded that 66 per cent supported assisted dying for the terminally ill.
In a nuanced comment yesterday, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, preaching at Westminster Abbey, declared: ìWe are once again dealing with proposals to legislate for assisted dying in our medical system. And it is significant that the word ëdignityí has been adopted as the name of a pressure group seeking to change the law on this matter. There is a powerful argument that to deny to suffering people the freedom to end an unbearable existence at the moment of their choice is a refusal of just that dignity which Florence Nightingale cared about so passionately. And if you have ever lived close to someone declining slowly towards death in circumstances of pain or humiliation, you will feel the strength of the argument.î
He continued: ìYet it has been observed that in the health care professions, the closer you come to actually having to bring this about, the deeper the opposition. GPs or consultants may manage a substantial proportion in favour, nurses in general are far less convinced, and palliative care workers are overwhelmingly against. There will be wide difference of opinion, I guess, on the abstract principle in a group like this. But there will also be a keen personal awareness that once we let go of the principle that everyone deserves care and respect, we are in uncharted territory; and if there is ever what looks like a short cut in dealing with the terminally ill or even the outstandingly inconvenient, resource-intensive patient, we have to face the possibility of any number of subtle pressures that may be at work in favour of assisted dying, however little the proponents of this may want it or approve of it.î
Advocates of hospice care, the majority of whom oppose assisted dying, say that it is one of the UK’s outstanding success stories. From the opening of the first modern hospice, St Christopher’s, in south London in 1967, it has grown into a worldwide movement that has radically changed the way people approach death and dying.
But groups such as MCU say that this does not take away the need to face difficult decisions over terminal illness, and argue that a merciful approach to people who wish to be relieved of undue suffering at the end of life is not the ìcult of deathî that some critics say it is.
The often bitter and angry argument look set to continue, whatever the outcome of tomorrowís vote on Joffe in the House of Lords.
Further resources: Hospice Information site, Professor Badham’s MCU submission on Assisted Dying, the Christian Medical Fellowship briefing, and British Humanist Association submission on Joffe. Care Not Killing lobby site. In Bad Faith BHA report.
[Also from Ekklesia: Archbishop says health and people come before money and targets 10/05/06; Christian campaigners distort facts on Assisted Dying Bill, says report 10/05/06; Faith leaders back palliative care as ëassisted dyingí row continues; Adviser to Archbishop of Canterbury says mercy killing may be OK; Methodists make euthanasia submission; Medics say not only religious minority oppose euthanasia; Euthanasia may be on the increase as British couple commit suicide; Amendment defeated but Government offers concessions over Mental Capacity Bill; Campaigner’s disquiet at passing of Mental Capacity Bill; Outrage from churches over euthanasia on newborns]
Protestors line up to oppose Assisted Dying Bill
-12/05/06
Protest organisers are predicting that thousands will descend on parliament at lunchtime on Friday 12 May 2006, to voice opposition to Lord Joffe’s Assisted Dying Bill, which is being debated and voted on in the House of Lords.
According to Independent Catholic News, one group will be presenting a petition to 10 Downing Street signed by more than 100,000 people in just four weeks. Hundreds of other representatives of UK faith groups, doctors and nurses, and disability campaigners have been delivering letters to MPs over the last few weeks.
Critics of the Assisted Dying Bill say it is a slippery slope to ìfull-blown euthanasiaî for elderly, depressed and seriously-ill patients. But supporters say it is a carefully restrictive and compassionate measure allowing proper choice for those with terminal illnesses to die with dignity.
Campaigners against the Bill argue that it would create scope for abuse ? such as the killing of disabled babies and the sanctioning of involuntary euthanasia. Proponents say this is highly irresponsible scare-mongering with no factual basis.
Care Not Killing, which represents more than 32 charities and health care groups, is warning that the Joffe Bill would put the old and the sick under intolerable pressure to end their lives, not least because of severe pressures on health and long-term care services.
The group was launched on 31 January 2006. Members include the Association for Palliative Medicine of Great Britain and Ireland, the British Council of Disabled People, RADAR, the Christian Medical Fellowship and the Medical Ethics Alliance.
CNK campaign director Dr Peter Saunders said: ìWe believe that this is a very bad Bill and one that would create great problems for old and sick patients and the medical and nursing professions. Over the past few days as the public has become aware of the issues at stake, people have been signing our petition opposing the Bill at the rate of 10,000 a day. More than 100,000 people have signed the petition we will present to Downing Streetî.
He continues: ìAgainst this background of popular dissent, we believe it is right that the House of Lords should pass judgement by holding a vote at second reading and halting moves to legalise euthanasia in the UK. It is time to take a stand against this grossly misguided measure.î
Jane Campbell, convenor of Not Dead Yet UK, a new coalition, said: “”We oppose Lord Joffe’s Assisted Dying for the Terminally Ill Bill because it is damaging and dangerous to terminally ill and disabled peopleÖ [I]t feeds the myth that our lives are not worth living. If assisted dying is legalised it will create pressure, particularly on those who are newly disabled, to end their lives.î
Surveys of the Royal College of Physicians, the Royal College of General Practitioners, the Association for Palliative Medicine and the British Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons have all produced majorities of doctors against the Bill. And no major disability organisation has backed it.
The Disability Rights Commission ìbelieves it would be a mistake to support assisted dying because of particularly complex individual cases in a society that does not recognise disabled people as equal citizens nor provide the services and support we believe are fundamental before assisted dying is legalised.î
But supporters of the current Bill say that the majority of the public back change and that opponents are clouding careful examination of what is being put forward by melodramatic rhetoric. Earlier this week, as reported on Ekklesia, the British Humanist Association published a report, ëIn Bad Faithí, which accuses Christian campaigning groups of acting irresponsibly, and not being representative of public or Christian opinion.
It also says that the voices of Christians who support the Bill, like the Modern Churchpeopleís Union (MCU), are being effectively silenced.
The Church of England and the Roman Catholic Bishops Conference in England and Wales have come out strongly against the Joffe Bill. But Anglican bishops agreed that withholding excessive medical treatment when there is no “reasonable prospect of recovery was consistent with Christian principals” at the 1998 Lambeth conference.
And Canon Robin Gill, a professor of modern theology at the University of Kent, has been reported as saying that people who help terminally ill relatives who are in great pain to end their lives should not be prosecuted. In 1998 he edited a book entitled Euthanasia and the Churches and the following year he carried out research on regular churchgoers, published in 2000, which concluded that 66 per cent supported assisted dying for the terminally ill.
In a nuanced comment yesterday, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, preaching at Westminster Abbey, declared: ìWe are once again dealing with proposals to legislate for assisted dying in our medical system. And it is significant that the word ëdignityí has been adopted as the name of a pressure group seeking to change the law on this matter. There is a powerful argument that to deny to suffering people the freedom to end an unbearable existence at the moment of their choice is a refusal of just that dignity which Florence Nightingale cared about so passionately. And if you have ever lived close to someone declining slowly towards death in circumstances of pain or humiliation, you will feel the strength of the argument.î
He continued: ìYet it has been observed that in the health care professions, the closer you come to actually having to bring this about, the deeper the opposition. GPs or consultants may manage a substantial proportion in favour, nurses in general are far less convinced, and palliative care workers are overwhelmingly against. There will be wide difference of opinion, I guess, on the abstract principle in a group like this. But there will also be a keen personal awareness that once we let go of the principle that everyone deserves care and respect, we are in uncharted territory; and if there is ever what looks like a short cut in dealing with the terminally ill or even the outstandingly inconvenient, resource-intensive patient, we have to face the possibility of any number of subtle pressures that may be at work in favour of assisted dying, however little the proponents of this may want it or approve of it.î
Advocates of hospice care, the majority of whom oppose assisted dying, say that it is one of the UK’s outstanding success stories. From the opening of the first modern hospice, St Christopher’s, in south London in 1967, it has grown into a worldwide movement that has radically changed the way people approach death and dying.
But groups such as MCU say that this does not take away the need to face difficult decisions over terminal illness, and argue that a merciful approach to people who wish to be relieved of undue suffering at the end of life is not the ìcult of deathî that some critics say it is.
The often bitter and angry argument look set to continue, whatever the outcome of tomorrowís vote on Joffe in the House of Lords.
Further resources: Hospice Information site, Professor Badham’s MCU submission on Assisted Dying, the Christian Medical Fellowship briefing, and British Humanist Association submission on Joffe. Care Not Killing lobby site. In Bad Faith BHA report.
[Also from Ekklesia: Archbishop says health and people come before money and targets 10/05/06; Christian campaigners distort facts on Assisted Dying Bill, says report 10/05/06; Faith leaders back palliative care as ëassisted dyingí row continues; Adviser to Archbishop of Canterbury says mercy killing may be OK; Methodists make euthanasia submission; Medics say not only religious minority oppose euthanasia; Euthanasia may be on the increase as British couple commit suicide; Amendment defeated but Government offers concessions over Mental Capacity Bill; Campaigner’s disquiet at passing of Mental Capacity Bill; Outrage from churches over euthanasia on newborns]