|PIC1|The House of Lords has wisely rejected this amendment. Today we have seen over 30 leaders of disabled people’s organisations in an open letter, along with doctors’ leaders in a comprehensive clinical briefing joining their voices to those of senior legal figures who last week labelled the amendment “ill-defined, unsound and unnecessary”.

The amendment is vaguely worded and unworkable and its safeguards illusory. The phrase “terminally ill” is not further defined and could apply to people with a very wide range of chronic progressive illnesses some with life expectancy stretching to decades.

The assessing doctors are not required to know, to see nor to examine the person in question nor even to review the case notes; nor to possess the requisite training, experience and skill necessary to make a sound judgement about prognosis and capacity. The amendment is thereby wide open to manipulation and abuse.

The amendment would thereby put vulnerable people at risk. At a time of economic recession with imminent health cuts, growing numbers of elderly people, and increasing levels of elder abuse the very last thing we need is to put elderly, sick or disabled people, many of whom already believe they are a financial or emotional burden to relatives, carers and the state, under pressure to end their lives through a change in the law.

The current law is clear and right. The Suicide Act 1961 has stood the test of time and gives a blanket prohibition to all assistance with suicide. The penalties the current law holds in reserve give it both a stern face to deter would-be abusers and a kind heart to enable judges to exercise compassion in hard cases.

This amendment would have created legal confusion by loosening a law that the government is actually trying to tighten to stop internet suicides. What is not broken does not need fixing,

Passing the Falconer amendment would have irreparably damaged the law by establishing an exception to the Suicide Act. The next step in the incremental strategy would have been to argue for ‘equality’ by legalising assisted suicide here. The House of Lords has wisely rejected it.



About Dr Peter Saunders
Peter Saunders was born in New Zealand and originally trained as a General Surgeon, before serving with the Africa Inland Mission in Kenya and completing two years mission training at All Nations Christian College in the UK. Since 1992 he has worked in full-time Christian ministry with Christian Medical Fellowship, first as Student Secretary and since 1999 as General Secretary. He is also Director of the Care Not Killing Alliance and is involved in the Alive and Kicking Alliance.