Dying bill debate heats up ahead of tomorrow’s discussions
Care Minister Norman Lamb has now revealed that he will support a new law on assisted dying, claiming individuals should “make their own decision about their life”.
The bill, brought about by former Labour Lord Chancellor Lord Falconer, will be debated by peers on Friday. It proposes to allow doctors to prescribe a lethal dose to terminally ill patients who have been judged to have less than six months to live.
Lib Dem Mr Lamb confessed he had changed his mind after speaking to people whose relatives and friends had passed away after “going through months of pain and distress”. He continued by telling BBC Newsnight “I think that there are very clear safeguards, the safeguards are absolutely critical, in a sense it was the fear of exploitation which always caused me concern in the past. But ultimately, should we stand in the way of someone wanting to make their own decision about their life, or should we set the safeguards in place to ensure that there is every chance of avoiding that exploitation? I’m very clear in my mind that the individual should be the person who decides, not the state.”
Authorised euthanasia
The potential new law also has the support of famed scientist Stephen Hawking, who said it was a “discrimination against the disabled to deny them the right to kill themselves that able bodied people have”. Prime Minister David Cameron on the other hand remains skeptical, warning that “people might be being pushed into things that they don’t actually want for themselves”.
The Church of England has also been involved in discussions around this issue, as former Archbishop of Canterbury Lord Carey has offered his approval of the new law, after seeing “the reality of needless suffering”.
Cancer specialist Prof Karol Sikora said “I think the difficulty we have is that if you do implement the bill that’s proposed on Friday, doctors are going to have to make the death decision, you’re going to have to have essentially death squads, which is really out of the context of delivering good health care.”
What do you think about the proposed assisted dying bill? As a doctor, would you feel comfortable delivering euthanasia?
