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LONDON, UK, January 15, 2004 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The British House of Lords took an unprecedented step yesterday by appointing a committee to investigate a Bill to legalize assisted suicide there. The Private Members Bill was first presented to the House last summer by Lord Joffe. Joffe, a former human rights lawyer, defended Nelson Mandela in the 1960’s. Joffe claims that 80 percent of British citizens support the legalization of euthanasia. The Bill would make medically-assisted suicide legal for terminally ill patients who had considered all other options.

Contrary to Joffe’s claim, a May 2003 UK Right To Life organization report states that “Almost three out of four doctors (74%) would refuse to perform assisted suicide if it were legalized. A clear majority (56%) also consider that it would be impossible to set safe bounds to euthanasia as compared to 37% who disagree.” This was based on the UK Opinion Research Business survey completed by 986 doctors there in March and April 2003.

All-Party Parliamentary Pro-Life Group Chairman Jim Dobbin MP (Labour – Heywood & Middleton) said of the survey findings: “We welcome these initial results. They are very much in keeping with a survey published in Hospital Doctor (13th March, 2003) which showed that 57% of doctors were opposed to the law in Britain being changed to allow euthanasia. They…demonstrate that a clear majority of doctors are opposed to the Lord Joffe Bill.” 

Of note, the survey also found that “Not one palliative care doctor who responded to the survey would practice either euthanasia or assisted suicide,” and “Overall 56% of doctors agreed with the House of Lords Select Committee on Medical Ethics which considered that it would be impossible to set safe bounds on euthanasia.” 

To assess the support within the patient community, the survey asked “how many patients had requested euthanasia during the past three years.” The response revealed that “nearly half (48%) of the doctors said “not one”. 37% quoted less than five; 11% gave numbers between 5 and 10 patients; only 2% gave figures of more than ten. In their comments doctors said that in their experience requests for euthanasia were often ‘cries for help that have been resolved with good symptom control…they almost invariably want relief from distress.’” 

On the euthanasia.com web site, Dr. David Stevens, executive director of the 13,000 member Christian Medical & Dental Society (CMDS), responds to a February 1999 report published by the Journal of Medical Ethics. The report states that “The Netherlands’ failed attempts to regulate euthanasia is compelling evidence that physician-assisted suicide should not be legalized. And the national organization of doctors says thousands of vulnerable people will die as long as physician-assisted suicide is permitted.” 

Dr. Stevens responds, saying “One in five cases of assisted suicide occurred in Holland without the patient’s consent, and in 17 percent of the cases, other treatment options were available. The survey also revealed that almost two-thirds of the euthanasia cases in 1995 were not reported. With this kind of irresponsibility and neglect, who will ever know what really went on between a doctor and a patient when a patient is dead? If we can’t even control the actions of one doctor—Jack Kevorkian—when physician-assisted suicide is illegal, how can we expect to regulate the actions of thousands of doctors where physician-assisted suicide is legal? The Holland experience with euthanasia is one we can’t afford to repeat.”  

Read the UK Right to Life report at: https://www.righttolife.org.uk/rtl/releases/13may2003.htm

With files from The Chester Chronicle