Category: Events Reports

Dutch academic and former euthanasia regulator Theo Boer and American lawyer and author Wesley Smith addressed Parliamentarians on World Suicide Prevention Day.

Sir Bernard Jenkin asserted that 'the question is whether we can safely change the law in a way that does not create new or worse dangers.' Jim Shannon contended that 'the right to die for the eloquent and financially well off will become a duty to die for the vulnerable.'

It's simple, straightforward and will work because we want it to - that's the message that comes across in advocates' polling questions, and in increasingly exasperated Commons speeches. But is it true?

Just four years after a packed Commons debated the topic, informed by months of expert briefings and consultations, assisted suicide was dragged back before the House. Why?

MPs pursuing a change in the law on assisted suicide sought to shift the focus away from the weaknesses of their legislative offerings and onto emotive hard cases - but couldn't resist returning to old ground.

Government minister tells assisted suicide campaigner the Government will not form policy on a matter of conscience, and reminds peers that the current law has been judged to strike a 'fair balance'