A cross-bench peer who is a palliative care specialist, Baroness Finlay of Llandaff, has accused the authorities in Guernsey of “giving up” on their population by potentially becoming the first place in the UK to allow assisted dying.
Parliament there will debate the issue next week and if approved, will open the subject up to an 18-month consultation period; the proposal is aimed at people who are terminally ill, mentally competent and have less than six months to live, according to doctors. Lady Finlay, speaking on Radio 4’s Today programme said Guernsey would be asking for “a fundamental change in the role of the doctor towards the patient who is in despair, who may be feeling demoralised”.
The island’s chief minister, Gavin St Pier, who is backing the bill, told the programme that doctors were “shifting their views” on the subject: “At the heart of this question is the individual’s right to self-determination and their autonomy. Public policy on health has developed in every other way to put the patient at the centre of their own care – right up until their last few weeks … This is the exception which now needs to be addressed.” He dismissed the warning that Guernsey could become a magnet for people wishing to end their lives: “Our focus is primarily on what is right for our own community … it’s to design a regime that meets their needs, rather than providing a destination for others.”
Professor Jane Dacre, the president of the Royal College of Physicians, told the BBC that its members would be questioned again next year on assisted dying, following two previous surveys over the past decade which both rejected the concept: “Opposition to assisted dying was very strong 10 years ago and is reducing slowly, but it hasn’t reached the stage at which we can come out and fully support it,” she said.
Guernsey’s proposed introduction of assisted dying has been heavily criticised by the Bishop of Portsmouth, Philip Egan, whose diocese includes the island.
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