Euthanasia is a major and divisive issue. People hold strong opinions on whether or not it should be legalised, which can come from religious, medical, personal or other beliefs. The novelist Will Self was recently quoted on Radio 4 as saying it is "an absolutely perennial pre-occupation in our society."
This website does not pretend to offer a complete insight into such a huge debate but it does provide an objective look at the various opinions held regarding whether it should be legalised in the UK.
To hear an EXCLUSIVE interview with Dr Death about his beliefs click here
There is currently a proposed amendment to the Coroners and Justice Bill being debated in the House of Lords which includes a clause that would make it legal to assist someone abroad in order for them to commit suicide. This has brought euthanansia back into the spotlight, as has the recent case of Debbie Purdy who suffers from progressive MS and who wants to ensure her husband will not be prosecuted if they travel abroad to let her die. Such cases have garnered both huge support and criticism. Many political figures such as Lord Falconer and Patricia Hewitt MP back the bill but other such as Alex Carlile, Lord Carlile of Berriew are against the amendment. Read his opinion below:
“I believe that no system of law can be created that sufficiently protects the vulnerable. And I believe that those who are in favour of it have heavily underestimated the importance of one particular preventative measure in our constitution which is the discretion of the Attorney General and the Director of Public Prosecutions not to prosecute. This is often exercised in this area. I also think this an area best left to the exercise of personal responsibility.”
The law is clear and manageable. It’s fairly implemented and is in a perfectly satisfactory state. If you examine the wording of the bill, as I have one can postulate many different circumstances which would run the risk of vulnerable individuals being persuaded, encouraged or not discouraged from suicide by relatives and others who may have oblique motives. Furthermore I think it places a rather naive trust in a very small number of medical practitioners. The catalogue of medical practitioners who have misbehaved is very large. It includes at an extreme end Dr Shipman but there are others and there have been others."
This opinion sharply contrasts with that of Ludwig A. Minelli who runs the famous Dignitas clinic in Switzerland. Read a quote from him below:
"My work within Dignitas has exactly to do with the last Human Right: The ability to decide, how and when somebody would like to end one’s own life. For years, I have been persuaded that this is really the last Human right, and I have
also been fighting for this goal for many years."
However, in turn the British Medical Association are against euthanasia. Read a quote from them below:
“The current policy of the BMA is that we support the improvement in palliative care that allows patients to die with dignity. We do not believe that physician assisted suicide should be made legal in the UK and we don’t believe voluntary euthanasia should be made legal in the UK either. We believe this because we think it would bring about a huge change in society and it wouldn’t be for doctors to decide if the law should change. It would be a decision for society as a whole. Essentially a doctor’s role is to heal and to make people better and we think that conflicts with participating with assisted dying.”
Franca Tranza, Press Officer for the BMA
The issue of palliative care cannot be ignored. The work of the hospice movement is frequently given as an alternative to assisted suicide. The hospice movement itself does not hold an opinion on euthanasia but here are soem quotes about palliative care from different perspectives-
James Harris, Head of Campaigns and Communications at Dignity in Dying:
"I think if we’re honest there’s a traditional hostility that comes from many within the hospice movement towards a change in the law. That’s understandable in the sense of how the hospice movement has evolved in this country. I think they do outstanding work, there are issues there within the hospice movement of greater access. I think many people, not just us, have concerns about people who have terminal conditions that aren’t just cancer for example in how they would access the high level of quality care given by the hospice movement.
So I think there are issues there that we would like to work with the hospice movement on in terms of how do we learn best practice from the care they’re providing and roll that out across other settings, obviously in hospices and care homes. And how do we get better resources to hospices so that they can open up that service they provide. They key thing I think is that traditionally in this country assisted dying has been seen as the antithesis of palliative care and we don’t see it as either, or. We think people should be able to access high quality end of life care but should they find themselves in a position where they consider their suffering to be unbearable it isn’t detrimental to the care they’re receiving to say I want to take control over this."
Lord Carlile
"Britain is in the forefront of palliative care and much of it is done through hospices. However, the hospice movement has been let down by successive governments. Hospices have found it very difficult to access statutory funding, even though in case after case after case they save the National Health Service a huge amount of money. In my view therefore the core funding for hospices should be provided through the public sector."
Mike Denny, Head of fundraising and Communications at Oakhaven Hospice in Hampshire
“Palliative nursing is a real skill. To have the ability to sympathise and empathise with patients and families without being patronising is such a skill. Many of the patients are scared. They’re in pain, they know what’s happening to them and our medical team have a wonderful ability to actually make our patients and their families feel much more at ease with themselves. I’ve lost count of the amount of times I’ve had families say to me in the days and the weeks afterwards say my mum or dad was really scared. They were really nervous about coming into Oakhaven because they had this image of what Oakhaven was but they hadn’t been there very long and they soon realised it wasn’t what they thought it was. That is was a happy place, a place where there was laughter and where there was light. You don’t see people walking around with dour miserable looks on their faces. It just isn’t that sort of environment and the people make that, they generate that atmosphere. You can have the most wonderful surroundings but if the people who are in it doing the job aren’t the right people with the right skills then it won’t work. Our staff have the ability to make people feel comfortable and to change their mindset so they are at ease with what is going to happen to them.
The majority of hospices in the UK are not funded by the NHS. Some get more funding than others but the majority, like us, get a very small proportion of what they need to keep them going. The NHS and government could be much more supportive of the hospice movement and end of life care in particular."
It is undeniable that our attitudes towards euthanasia and assisted suicide tie in with our views on death as a whole. We in the UK are not known for dealing with bereavement as well as some other cultures.
Bournemouth Coroners Officer Neil Murdoch comments on this below:
"We do not deal with death well in this country. It is almost as if some people don’t know how to grieve or how to demonstrate that grief. To me it is a cultural thing—probably stemming from two world wars in living memory when the fight to survive or act as a nation overtook the need to demonstrate loss. In general other cultures appear to me to grieve better, they are more natural and spontaneous and there is more of a family/extended family/friends/loved ones/community approach to the death. It is as if death is a natural expected part of life and not something to be brought out of the closet when it happens.
These few quotes on the various issues surrounding euthanasia demonstrate what an immense subject it is. I hope the following sections of my website will help you to understand just a little more the debate on euthanasia and whetehr it should be legalised in the UK.
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