Opposition to assisted dying Bill takes shape

Parliamentarians, medical professionals and faith leaders have created a broad campaign to oppose the introduction of an assisted dying law.

The law would make it legal for doctors to prescribe fatal drugs to people who have asked to die.

News that Lord Joffe, who has tried twice to introduce a Private Members Bill, will try for a third time, has also prompted the formation of an All Party Parlia-mentary Group on Dying Well.

The Church of England, together with the All Party Group, is anxious to dispel the idea that assisted suicide has wide popular support and is opposed only by a minority, even among the medical profession.

"There needs to be a balanced approach to reporting views about assisted dying," said the Rt Revd Christopher Herbert, Bishop of St Albans, who sat on the Select Committee which examined Lord Joffe's last bill and is a member of the All Party group. Some reporting, he said, was fostering "the erroneous impression that there is widespread support among doctors for a change in the law to allow medical assistance with suicide or euthanasia."

In September, the Royal College of General Practitioners, after consultation, reversed its original neutral stance on the Bill in favour of advocating no change in the law. Meanwhile, the General Medical Council warned that a change such as Lord Joffe was advocating would have serious implications for the doctor-patient relationship and be difficult to reconcile with medical ethical principles.

In October, an open letter to Parliament, signed by nine faith leaders from the major religions expressed grave concern at the prospect of the Bill.

In a lecture to mark the centenary of Friends of the Elderly, the Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams said: "The current drift towards a more accepting attitude to assisted suicide and euthanasia in some quarters gives me a great deal of concern." Dr Williams added: "What begins as a compassionate desire to enable those who long for death because of protracted pain, distress or humiliation to have their wish can, with the best will in the world, help to foster an attitude that assumes resources spent on the elderly are a luxury."

Claire Foster, medical policy adviser to the Archbishops' Council, welcomed the launch of the All Party Group, whose most prominent voice is Anglican MP Frank Field. The Group aims "to work for the resources, information and levels of care which are necessary for everyone in this country to have a comfortable natural death, and which enable the process of dying to be undertaken with the dignity and respect that each individual deserves."

Parliament is due to debate assisted dying once more