In 1995, when assisted dying was briefly legalised in the Northern Territories of Australia, Dr Philip Nitschke created a suicide machine named ‘Deliverance’ by linking up his laptop to a syringe of deadly chemicals. This ‘suicide machine’ became a source of immediate controversy when displayed as an icon of contemporary medicine at the Science Museum […]
On Friday, MPs will not vote on the principle of assisted dying, but whether they want this dangerous Bill, following this process, to become law. A Bill so flawed that the Royal College of Physicians and Royal College of Psychiatrists – neutral for six years – were forced to oppose it because major deficiencies remain. […]
The report stage of Kim Leadbeater’s Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill was meant to be held later this month, on April 25 to be precise. However, earlier this month, in a letter to MPs shortly before they broke up for Easter recess, Leadbeater announced that the date had been pushed back to May […]
Today, MPs must decide whether they support the Assisted Dying/Assisted Suicide Bill. It has come about not because of a manifesto pledge, or public pressure, or extensive consultation, but through the work of a single well-funded campaign group and the Private Members’ Bill (PMB) ballot. MPs are voting on whether this specific Bill should become […]
This Friday, the House of Commons votes on whether to allow assisted dying. The proposals will have strong safeguards. To fall within the very limited scope of the legislation, an adult must be judged capable of choice (so not children and those suffering neurodegenerative diseases), have a terminal illness and an expected life expectancy of […]
Assisted suicide is an issue which – rightly – arouses strong feelings on both sides. But setting aside the substance of the issue for a minute, the circus surrounding Kim Leadbeater’s Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill (henceforth the ‘Leadbeater Bill’) has been yet another bleak milestone in the trivialisation of Parliament. The ur-problem […]
It was meant to be a last resort – an act of ‘compassion’ to ease the suffering of the terminally ill. Instead, ‘medical assistance in dying’ (MAID) in Canada has exploded. Even worse, it’s being suggested to vulnerable disabled and mentally ill patients – many of whom could be treated with other therapies or medications.To […]
‘But by selling himself for a slave, he abdicates his liberty; he foregoes any future use of it, beyond that single act.’ So wrote John Stuart Mill – the pre-eminent liberal thinker, in the seminal essay which laid the foundations for political liberalism, ‘On Liberty’. In 1859, when ‘On Liberty’ was published, Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation […]
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