Printed from: https://archive.cmf.org.uk/advocacy/pressrelease/?id=6
Published: 5th February 2002
The study results, extracted from the 11th British Social Attitudes Survey published in 1994, have just appeared in the Journal of Medical Ethics.
CMF General Secretary Peter Saunders said, 'The Voluntary Euthanasia Society have seized upon this small dated survey in a last ditch attempt to manipulate public opinion ahead of the Diane Pretty case going to the European Court of Human Rights next month. They are trying to bring in euthanasia via the back door, but they are grasping at straws.'
'Since the Law Lords ruled that there should be no change in the law to allow euthanasia in 1994, the euthanasia lobby have been losing their battle to bring in lethal injection euthanasia in this country. This is why we are seeing a shift in tactics towards the softer target of assisted suicide. But eight years is a long time in history and in the wake of Shipman the public are now much more aware of how lax laws can be exploited.'
Doctors are not perfect and this is why effective legislation must be in place both to guide the medical profession and to safeguard patients. A change in the law to allow assisted suicide would put too much power in the hands of doctors. It would make them the most dangerous people in the state.
In ruling on the Diane Pretty case, the House of Lords wisely upheld the present law prohibiting assisted suicide and euthanasia on 29 November last year. A British Medical Association consensus conference in March 2000 similarly ruled against a change in the law to allow physician assisted suicide.
To have made provision for Diane Pretty to be killed would not only have affected her as an isolated individual. The treatments for the control of the symptoms of motor neurone disease have much in common with those used for symptom management in other neurological diseases and in cancer. If such treatment were to be classified as 'inhuman and degrading' this would not apply uniquely to people with motor neurone disease but also to the many thousands receiving palliation for other progressive diseases.
The law is a blunt instrument, and there will always be individual cases, often those we have failed in managing optimally, which raise the questions about assisted suicide. But hard cases make bad laws and bad laws change the public conscience and place vulnerable groups at risk. Any change in the law to allow assisted suicide (whether by doctors or relatives) would threaten the trust necessary for the doctor-patient relationship to function, place pressure on patients (whether real or imagined) to request early death, and introduce a slippery slope to voluntary and involuntary euthanasia. Such legislation would also be impossible to police, might well undermine the development of palliative care services and could lead to patients being incited to request suicide for economic reasons by family, carers or society at large.
Medical technology and palliative care have now advanced to a level where most people in the developed world, including those with motor neurone disease, are able to die comfortably and many of the symptoms prompting the request for PAS are psychosocial and spiritual rather than physical. It is entirely inappropriate that patients' fears about loss of dignity or control over death should be managed with lethal drugs. Rather than helping patients to kill themselves we need to be treating the symptoms that are prompting the request for early death. The European Association for Palliative Care in affirming its strong opposition to the legalisation of euthanasia has noted that euthanasia requests are very uncommon when care is aimed at achieving the best quality of life for patients and their families by focusing on their physical, psychosocial and spiritual suffering.
Steven Fouch (CMF Head of Communications) 020 7234 9668
Alistair Thompson on 07970 162 225
Christian Medical Fellowship (CMF) was founded in 1949 and is an interdenominational organisation with over 5,000 doctors, 900medical and nursing students and 300 nurses and midwives as members in all branches of medicine, nursing and midwifery. A registered charity, it is linked to over 100 similar bodies in other countries throughout the world.
CMF exists to unite Christian healthcare professionals to pursue the highest ethical standards in Christian and professional life and to increase faith in Christ and acceptance of his ethical teaching.
