Contents

  1. Joffe Bill Update
  2. Care Not Killing Update
  3. VES rebranding as 'Dignity in Dying' continues to be problematic
  4. Anniversaries
  5. Dr Ann Turner
  6. More controversy about Dignitas
  7. VES membership claims inflated
  8. Effects of euthanasia on doctors

1. Joffe Bill Update

The second reading (debate stage) of Lord Joffe's amended Assisted Dying for the Terminally Ill Bill will be on 12 May. The bill was previously reviewed in the Euthanasia ebulletin.

We can expect a strong campaign from the pro-euthanasia lobby as the date approaches. This will focus on high profile cases and opinion polls, such as that pictured on the VES (DiD) website purporting to show public support for a change in the law.

Advocates of the bill have been quick to point out the so-called 'safeguards' within it; that it is only assisted suicide and not euthanasia, only for adults and not children, only for those with 'six months to live', only for those with unbearable suffering and only for those who make a 'persistent and considered' request. They further emphasise the option of palliative care, the need for signed consent, assessment of mental competence, the two-week waiting period and the detailed documentation.

However they fail to point out the following:

  • Assisted suicide is euthanasia by intention and often unsuccessful leading for the need for the doctor to step in with a lethal injection
  • Assessments of 'competence' will extend the Act to children using the precedent of Gillick
  • The prognosis in terminal illness is difficult to define and can be altered dramatically by treatment
  • Suffering in the bill has been completely subjectively defined contrary to the advice of the Select Committee
  • Individual cases of assisted suicide are not to be reviewed independently until after the key witness (the patient) is dead
  • The evidence from Oregon and the Netherlands shows that relying on doctors' self-reporting is unreliable
  • Requests for assisted suicide can be profoundly influenced by fear of being a burden which is impossible for those without personal knowledge of the patient to properly assess
  • People often express a wish to die because of depression and no psychiatric screening is required in the bill
  • The bill only requires advice about palliative care not experience of palliative care but many suicidal terminally ill patients change their minds completely once they receive good care
  • The Bill has ignored all the House of Lords' Select Committee's recommendations that concern safeguards.( Assisted Dying for the Terminally Ill Bill [HL]. Volume 1: Report, Paragraph 92)

This Bill also contains within it the seeds of its own extension. If we are allowing assisted dying for reasons of compassion, then why deny it to patients who are suffering unbearably but not terminally ill? If we are allowing it for reasons of autonomy, then why not grant it to anyone who wants to make the choice? Such inconsistencies will be ripe for challenges under the Human Rights Act the minute that assisted suicide is established as a therapeutic option for anyone at all.

Lord Joffe is to be commended at very least for his honesty in giving evidence to his own Select Committee:

'We are starting off, this is a first stage... I believe that this Bill initially should be limited, although I would prefer it to be of much wider application… But I can assure you that I would prefer that the law did apply to patients who were younger and who were not terminally ill but who were suffering unbearably, and if there is a move to insert this into the Bill I would support it.' (Assisted Dying for the Terminally Ill Bill [HL]. Volume 1: Report, Paragraph 92)

2. Care Not Killing Update

The Care Not Killing Alliance has grown since its launch on 31 January and now consists of 32 organisations. Since January the group has:

Meanwhile Brian Iddon, Labour MP for Bolton South-East, has been appointed chair of the Care Not Killing steering group.

3. VES's rebranding itself as 'Dignity in Dying' continues to be problematic

The Voluntary Euthanasia Society (VES) changed its name to Dignity in Dying in January this year amidst protest from the Association of Palliative Medicine, the Medical Ethics Alliance and disabled people's groups. Company's House has apparently since turned down their application after protest form a funeral director who had been using the same name for many years.

In addition three organisations have grouped together and launched a legal challenge of the Voluntary Euthanasia Society's plans to trademark the phrase 'Dignity in Dying'. The VES had sought the trademark in order eventually to give 'Dignity in Dying' the exclusive right to use that name in connection with fundraising, political lobbying, legal documents, leaflets, newsletters, seminars, talks, education and research. Palliative care specialists have expressed anger about the phrase, long associated with the hospice movement, being hijacked by the pro-euthanasia lobby.

See also:

4. Significant anniversaries

Lord Joffe has planned for his Assisted Dying Bill to receive its second reading on 12 May, the day after the 4th anniversary of Diane Pretty's death from motor neurone disease.

The second reading itself will take place on the anniversary of Florence Nightingale's birth.

In a speech introducing introducing his Palliative Care for the Terminally Ill Bill to the House (due to be debated in the autumn) Jim Dobbin MP made the point that, 'Half of all patients diagnosed with motor neurone disease die within 14 months of diagnosis, yet a survey carried out in 2005 found that only 39 per cent. of such patients were referred to specialist palliative care services. Is it any wonder that people take fright when diagnosed with MND?'

The second reading of the Palliative Care for the Terminally Ill Bill has been moved from 17 March to 20 October.

In a BBC interview at the time of Diane Pretty's death George Levvy of the Motor Neurone Disease Association explains that with good palliative care no MND patient need die in distress. An excellent review on motor neurone disease is available on the website of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Dying Well

5. Dr Ann Turner

The euthanasia lobby is using the death of Dr Turner to promote the Joffe Bill. Joan Ruddock MP tabled an Early Day Motion (No 1494) in support of Dr Turner's suicide and calling for the issue to be debated in the House of Commons. However, an amended motion has been tabled by Brian Iddon which points out the misleading claims made in the original and it also draws attention to the fact that the whole tragic event of Dr Turner's death was politicised by the Voluntary Euthanasia Society.

The amended EDM (No 1494A1) reads as follows:

"That this House is saddened by the death of Dr Ann Turner and regrets the manner in which her assisted suicide in Switzerland was politicised by the euthanasia lobby to promote the legalisation of euthanasia; notes that what was described in The Times as as a 'grisly travelling theatre of death' for which a television team and other journalists were present throughout has been used relentlessly by the Voluntary Euthanasia Society to promote Lord Joffe's Bill to legalise assisted suicide; notes however that Dr Turner was not terminally ill and would not have qualified under the proposed legislation which requires a prognosis of death within six months whereas Dr Turner had six to eight years to live; further notes that she was diagnosed as having progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP) in 2004 for which the average survival is 10 years; further notes that the clinical course of PSP is not unlike Parkinson's disease and, although not curable, treatment is available that considerably improves the quality of life; hopes the authorities treated Dr Turner's son and daughters who accompanied her with compassion; nonetheless reminds the Government that every Disability Rights group in the UK is opposed to the Joffe Bill and any form of euthanasia because they consider it would totally undermine the basic rights of disabled people; and calls on the Government to invest extensively in research into PSP and similar diseases, to finance major extensions to the hospice movement and to oppose euthanasia."

Early Day Motion is a colloquial term for notices of motions given by a member for debate 'on an early day' but for which no date has been fixed. Few are actually debated. Generally, EDMs are a way by which members can put on record their opinion on a subject and canvass support for it from fellow-members. They are also an excellent source of information and useful to quote in correspondence with MPs. A full list of EDMs can be found on the parliament website.

6. More controversy about Dignitas

The founder of the Swiss clinic for assisted suicide, Dignitas, has aroused more controversy by claiming that people who have long-term depression or Alzheimer's disease should be able to choose to die. Ludwig Minelli said that terminal illness should not be the only reason that a person is helped to die and that depression could be a reason. See the following news reports:

7. VES membership claims inflated

Dr Michael Irwin, disgraced former chairman of the Vountary Euthanasia Society has stated in a letter to the Tablet that VES claims about a membership of 100,000 are overinflated. The letter, which appeared in The Tablet of 11 February reads as follows:

Although I support Lord Joffe's Assisted Dying for the Terminally Ill Bill, Dr Julian Hughes' article ('Don't let's kill the dying', 4 February) succinctly represents the opposing views. However, it is necessary to correct one figure he quotes. Dr Hughes states that the present membership of Dignity in Dying (the new name for the Voluntary Euthanasia Society) is 100,000. In fact, it is around 15,000: the other 85,000 are simply individuals who have signed petition forms or a postcard (eg. in support of Diane Pretty in 2001/2002) in recent years. (Michael Irwin, Member of the VES Board: 1995-2003)

8. Effects of euthanasia on doctors

Emotional and Psychological Effects of Physician-Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia on Participating Physicians.

This article, published in Issues in Law & Medicine, Vol 21, pages 187-200, Spring 2006, is a review and evaluation of medical and public literature regarding the reported emotional and psychological effects of physician assisted suicide and euthanasia on the involved physicians. The article concludes:

Physician participation in assisted suicide or euthanasia may have a profound harmful emotional toll on the involved physicians. Doctors must take responsibility for causing the patient's death. There is a huge burden on conscience, tangled emotions and a large psychological toll on the participating physicians. Many physicians describe feelings of isolation. Published evidence indicates that some patients and others are pressuring and intimidating doctors to assist in suicides. Some doctors feel they have no choice but to be involved in assisted suicides. Oregon physicians are decreasingly present at the time of the assisted suicide. There is also great potential for physicians to be affected by countertransference issues in dealing with end-of-life care, and assisted suicide and euthanasia.

Steering Group
Care Not Killing