05 January 2012
The 'Commission on Assisted Dying' is a self-appointed group
that excluded from its membership anyone with a known objection to
assisted suicide. In contrast, the majority of commissioners,
appointed personally by Lord Falconer, were already in favour of
changing the law to legitimise assisted suicide. Lord Falconer
has, himself, been a leading proponent for legitimising assisted
suicide, for some years.
The commission undertook a quest to find effective safeguards
that could be put in place to avoid abuse of any new law
legitimising assisted suicide. Unsurprisingly, given the
commission's composition, it has claimed to have found such
safeguards.
Unlike the commissioners, we are unconvinced that the commission
has been successful in its quest. It has singularly failed to
demonstrate that vulnerable people are not placed at greater risk
under its proposals than is currently the case under present
legislation. In spite of the findings of research that it
commissioned, it has failed adequately to take into account the
fact that in all jurisdictions where assisted suicide or euthanasia
is permitted, there are breaches of safeguards as well as notable
failures in monitoring and reporting.
The present law strikes an excellent balance between
safeguarding hundreds of thousands of vulnerable people and
treating with fairness and compassion those few people who, acting
out of selfless motives, have assisted a loved one to
die.
Put simply, the most effective safeguard against abuse is to
leave the law as it is. What Lord Falconer has done is to
argue that it is morally acceptable to put many vulnerable people
at increased risk so that the aspirations of a small number of
individuals, to control the time, place and means of their deaths,
might be met. Such a calculus of risk is unnecessary and
wholly unacceptable.
Rt Revd James Newcome, Bishop of Carlisle
(Lead Bishop for Healthcare Issues)
See also the section Protecting Life - Opposing Assisted
Suicide