LONDON, March 14, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC) has reported that the upper house of the UK’s parliament has approved the first stage of a bill to ban euthanasia by starvation and dehydration. The Patients’ Protection Bill, tabled by veteran pro-life campaigner Baroness Knight of Collingtree, was given a second reading in the House of Lords Wednesday and sent without a vote to a committee for further consideration.
The bill has received support from across the political spectrum, says SPUC. Lord Howe, the Conservative health spokesman, said: “[T]he volume of letters and e-mails that I have received on the subject testifies to the widespread concern that exists among the public about the treatment of terminally ill and frail elderly people in our hospitals.” Lord Carlile, a medical lawyer and Liberal Democrat peer, said: “What cannot be acceptable is the deliberate withdrawal of the very basis of human life – food and water, nutrition and hydration.”
See the debates in the House of Lords Hansard: https://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld199900/ldhansrd/pdvn/lds03/text/30312-14.htm#30312-14_head0