Coroners and Justice Bill
Read/monitor the progress of the Coroners and Justice Bill.
The Coroners and Justice Bill has nothing to do with euthanasia but pro-euthanasia activists are seeking to amend it to allow assisted suicide.
26 October 09
Assisted suicide amendment fails in the House of Lords
An amendment to the Coroners and Justice Bill that critics argued would lead to 'euthanasia on demand' has been removed after it faced strong opposition in the House of Lords.
The last-ditch amendment, tabled last week by Lord Alderdice, sought to allow the assisted suicide of people with an incurable illness providing a coroner has confirmed they have a “free and settled” wish to die.
Most peers who spoke argued against the amendment including Lord Tebbit:
"The plain fact is that there have been no prosecutions of people who have facilitated suicide by delivering those for whom life has become an excessive burden to the suicide factories in Switzerland. The fact that there could be such a prosecution may have deterred — indeed, I am sure that it has deterred — the compassionate from assisting the act of suicide in that way. Far more important, it has also deterred those who might have exerted pressure on a weak, ill and vulnerable person from whose death they might profit. In my view, the law is working perfectly well, or in some cases not working at all perfectly well, and we should
leave it alone."
In July, another amendment attempting to modify the Coroners and Justice Bill to allow the aiding of the terminally ill to seek assisted suicide abroad was rejected by peers by 194 votes to 141.
16 July 2009
Archbishop Vincent Nichols writes in The Daily Telegraph on assisted suicide
The notion of a right to a 'good death' undermines society
If my life has no objective value, then why should anyone else care for it, asks Vincent Nichols.
We have seen a significant defeat in Parliament for proposals to legalise assisted suicides, and learnt of the joint suicides at the Dignitas apartment in Switzerland of the eminent conductor Sir Edward Downes, and his wife, Lady Downes. While there are many ethical, medical and legal issues surrounding assisted suicide, at its heart lies the notion that we have an absolute moral entitlement to have whatever kind of death we choose. This is surely the triumph of the philosophy that proclaims individual rights above all other considerations and the relativist insistence that what is good is a matter of personal judgment.
Click for full article in The Daily Telegraph.
1 July 09
Care Not Killing welcomes BMA decision to oppose any change of law on assisted suicide
The Care not Killing Alliance, representing almost 50 organisations, has welcomed today's British Medical Association decision to oppose any legalisation of assistance with suicide. The BMA, at its annual representative meeting in Liverpool, has voted overwhelmingly to reject a motion calling for support for a change in the law in the light of recent high profile cases such as that of Multiple Sclerosis sufferer Debbie Purdy.
29 June 09
Religious leaders express concern over assisted suicide amendment to the Coroners and Justice Bill
The Most Rev Vincent Nichols, Archbishop of Westminster, joined the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams and Chief Rabbi Sir Jonathan Sacks in writing to The Daily Telegraph newspaper to express his concern over an amendment to the Coroners and Justice Bill focusing on assisted suicide.
The proposed amendment seeks to protect from prosecution those who help friends or relatives to go abroad to commit suicide in the countries where the practice is legal.
19 May 09
Comment by Archbishop Peter Smith
It has been announced that there is to be a free vote in June in the House of Lords during the committee stage of the Coroners and Justice Bill on amendments to change the law on assisted suicide. The Most Rev Peter Smith, Archbishop of Cardiff, and Chairman of the Bishops’ Conference Department of Christian Responsibility and Citizenship, made the following comment (19 May):
"These sections of the Coroners and Justice Bill (Sections 49-51) are designed to tighten the law in order to protect vulnerable people from internet websites that encourage or promote suicide. To amend it, as some are suggesting, to permit assistance with suicide would be perverse. It would result in a law that pointed in contradictory directions - banning encouragement with suicide but allowing assistance with it. Legalising assistance with suicide is a complex and controversial issue that cannot be addressed simply via an amendment to a wide-ranging bill designed for other purposes."
23 March 09
Archbishop Peter Smith writes to The Times on The Coroners and Justice Bill and assisted suicide
As the Bill entered its report stage, some MPs tabled an amendment (Report Stage, 23/24 March) which, if accepted, would make it lawful for people to assist others to go abroad to commit suicide.
The Most Rev Peter Smith, Archbishop of Cardiff, had a letter published in The Times newspaper to highlight his concern that Bill could be "hijacked" to allow for this.