David Burrowes outlines his position on assisted suicide
9th January 2012
Happy New Year! 2011 showed how difficult it is to predict what will be national issues in the coming months but if last week's media is anything to go by, assisted suicide will be one this year.
Should we free relatives from the burden of prosecution and allow terminally ill patients the choice of assisted death? Should we be concerned at the example overseas where legalising assisted suicide has lead to a huge increase in such deaths? Can adequate safeguards be written in to new laws to protect the vulnerable? Is legalising assisted suicide a step on the slippery slope to legalising euthanasia?
It is an issue which cuts across party and ethical lines. I recognise that caring for the terminally ill is a desperately difficult, complex and personal situation and any debate needs care and sensitivity and I would welcome hearing from those with direct experience. My view is that there is not a need to change the law on assisted suicide. The prosecution guidelines published last February has given a compassionate view to judgments upon agonising decisions taken by relatives of terminally ill patients. 60 cases referred to the Director of Public Prosecutions have not led to prosecution. But it is right that the law makes clear that society respects life, with all its difficulties, and suicide is not to be encouraged or assisted. I believe we need to work harder at supporting end of life care through funding excellent palliative care which is evident in our borough through Macmillan nurses, The Nightingale Cancer Support Centre and North London Hospice. The words of the French biologist Jean Rostand sum it up for me: “For my part I believe that there is no life so degraded, debased, deteriorated, or impoverished that it does not deserve respect and is not worth defending with zeal and conviction".
