Fresh calls to legalise assisted dying rejected

PRO-LIFE campaigners have dismissed calls to legalise assisted suicide in the wake of the death of a British father of three at the  Dignitas clinic in Switzerland.

Jeffrey Spector, 54, was helped to die on Friday last week at the clinic following a six-year illness that he feared would leave him paralysed.

Responding to his death, Sarah Wootton, chief executive of pro-euthanasia group Dignity in Dying, said: “No one should be forced to travel abroad to have the death that they want. The only way to give dying people choice and control at the end of life, while also best protecting vulnerable people, is through an assisted dying law with upfront safeguards.”

Lord Falconer, pictured,  the Labour peer and former Lord Chancellor, revealed that he hoped to bring back his bill to legalise assisted dying. It ran out of time for further debate before the general election.

A spokesman for the pro-life group Right to Life regretted that the renewed debate had reintroduced euthanasia to the agenda, but said it was unlikely to result in the legalisation of assisted suicide because there was little appetite for it in a socially conservative House of Commons.

“This exposes Dignity in Dying’s frustration and fear that, while they can get the baby-boomer generation in the Lords to go along with their excellent PR machine, they’re not able to force the Commons. There’s not a hope in hell of getting the Falconer Bill through this Parliament,” he said.

Catholic pro-life campaigner Lord Alton said that terminally ill people need assisted living, not dying. “‘Care’ and ‘kill’ are not synonyms and must never be given legal equivalence. A change in the law would place many vulnerable people at risk and fundamentally change the role of doctors,” he told The Tablet.

The Scottish Parliament voted on Wednesday to reject the Assisted Suicide (Scotland) Bill following protests from pro-life activists.