Family & Life

Lord Joffe Tries to Sneak Assisted Suicide in the Back Door : 22nd Jun 09

Relatives who abet the suicide of a terminally ill loved one as a “mercy killing” would be prosecuted for manslaughter rather than murder under a proposed amendment to new legislation going through the UK parliament. Lord Joffe, a leading campaigner for voluntary euthanasia killings, has tabled the amendment to the new Coroners and Justice Bill.

He wants to change the law so it would treat assisted suicide as manslaughter and not murder “for a person moved by compassion, in response to repeated requests by a terminally ill, mentally competent adult who is suffering unbearably, to assist (him) to end his life”.

Dr Peter Saunders, the director of Care Not Killing, which campaigns against assisted suicide, shot back, “I can’t see what there is in this amendment to stop a future Harold Shipman. (Shipman was a British doctor convicted of killing 15 of his patients but believed to have killed as many as 250). What they are proposing is a license for people feeling under a financial strain, or under the burden of caring, for someone to kill them”.

He called on those who wanted to legalise assisted suicide to bring a Bill on the issue rather than trying to “force it in through the back door”. Peers are expected to debate the amendments later this month. Telegraph. June 8.

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Family & Life

Lord Joffe Tries to Sneak Assisted Suicide in the Back Door : 22nd Jun 09

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