“Behind the arguments, there is a false view of autonomy. Individuals are regarded as isolated units who can do as they please with their own lives.”
Bishop Nazir-Ali writing in “Conservative Hme” says: Time and again, Parliament has refused to relax the law on assisted suicide. Having failed there, attempts were made to get around the law by persuading the Director of Public Prosecution to revise guidelines about who might be prosecuted for helping a relative or a friend to end their life. A relentless campaign has been kept up in the media inspite of the thinness of the medical, legal and moral arguments which are regularly brought up in support of changing the law. The refusal of professional bodies to endorse this agenda has also not deterred the enthusiasts for legalising assisted dying. Now we have an “independent” commission, reported to have been packed with supporters of euthanasia and funded by people like Terry Pratchett, known to be advocates of changing the law in this area.
To be fair, even such a biased commission has not been able to ignore the abuses which will take place if the law is changed. They did not like much of what they saw at the Dignitas clinic in Switzerland. It seems they were appalled by the width of the law in Holland, where even children are allowed to request an assisted death and where you could be helped to die if you are depressed. They were not very impressed with the situation in Oregon either. Yet having seen the large problems in three of the leading providers of assisted suicide, they are still able to recommend it for terminally ill patients in the UK who have a year or less to live. Whether the safeguards they prescribe are enough will be debated in the days to come. But my question is whether legal provision for assisted dying is necessary at all.
As a bishop, I was often visiting hospices and care homes for those with terminal illnesses or with dementia, the two conditions most argued for as meriting legalised assisted suicide. What did I find in them? I found people at their most vulnerable, uncertain of what was to follow and many who were desperately eager not to be a burden on anyone. The pressures on them are enormous and come from many directions. They are certainly not those to whom assisted suicide ought to be suggested and I am so glad that the, by and large, wonderful staff in hospices and care homes are not allowed to do so. The commission is not recommending that dementia sufferers should be able to ask for help in ending their lives, but some of its supporters and funders are definitely in favour of such a move.
Michael Nazir-Ali is Director of the Oxford Centre for Training, Research, Advocacy & Dialogue, and was formerly the Bishop of Rochester.