Threat to Disabled and Vulnerable People Condemned

LONDON - SPUC condemns today’s attempt by the former health minister, Mrs Patricia
Hewitt, to change the law to make it legal to take people abroad to commit
suicide. Mrs Hewitt’s amendment to the Coroners & Justice Bill is an
unwarranted threat to disabled and vulnerable people.

Commenting on the amendment SPUC’s general secretary, Paul Tully, said:
“Mrs Hewitt’s amendment sought to exempt from prosecution anyone assisting a
person’s travel to another country for the purposes of committing suicide
legally there. The pro-euthanasia lobby is seeking to change the public
perception of suicide - to make it seem like a reasonable and proper course
of action for people who are suffering. From the perspective of those who are
disabled or suffering from degenerative disease, the message is clear: ‘you
would be better off dead’. The more outspoken advocates of this philosophy
(like Baroness Warnock) speak about the right and duty for those who are
elderly, sick and dependent to choose death.

“This is truly frightening, particularly to those who live with much
suffering and restriction due to disability or other reasons. It devalues
their lives, and it disparages the efforts of those who help them to live to
the full - their families, carers and medical team.

“The proposed amendment contained no safeguards to ensure that it would
apply only to the dying - as press reports have misleadingly claimed. On the
contrary, it would apply to anyone at all - the teenager who has failed exams
or been bullied at school, people suffering from problems ranging from
addiction to bereavement to bankruptcy - or anyone else. All could be helped
to die under Mrs Hewitt’s proposed regime. Far from reassuring people, this
amendment represents a sinister negation of their right to exist.

“Allowing assisted suicide will not protect the vulnerable nor give real
support to families in difficult circumstances,” Mr. Tully continued.
“Enshrining ’suicide tourism’ in law would undermine the basis of the
prohibition on assisted suicide, which is the universal right to life.”

Source: Society for the Protection of Unborn Children

Contact: Paul Tully +44(0)20-8660-3651, mobile +44(0)7939-178719