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Email: information@spuc.org.uk
Labour plan to legalise euthanasia
Westminster, 9 April 2001--Claims that the Labour party plans to legalise euthanasia in England and Wales should it win the general election have been greeted by concern but not surprise by Britain's longest-established pro-life group.A Labour party spokesman refused to confirm whether the party's
manifesto would include a commitment to extending the Adults With
Incapacity (Scotland) Act to other parts of the UK. Lord Irvine, the
Lord Chancellor, said in 1999 that legislation to authorise euthanasia
by neglect in England and Wales would be introduced as soon as
parliamentary time allowed.
Alison Davis, head of the handicap division of the Society for
the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC), said: "There is no doubt that
the Scottish legislation has opened the door to allowing vulnerable
people to become victims of euthanasia by neglect, and it would be
extremely regrettable if it were applied to other parts of the UK as
well. Under the Scottish law, doctors could be expected to kill an
incapacitated patient by starvation and dehydration. This could be done
both on those who have a terminal illness and on those who are not
dying but are incapacitated, at the behest of a proxy who may not be
aware of the medical situation. The proxy could even stand to benefit
from the patient's death."
Since May 1997, SPUC has warned of threats to human life posed by new
anti-life legislation. The government has extended the availability of
the abortion-inducing morning-after pill and provisions for destructive
use of human embryos. It has also issued a white paper for England and
Wales proposing that vulnerable and incapacitated people could be
starved and dehydrated to death. The white paper would also allow
doctors to disregard the health, and even the survival, of their
patients.
SPUC promotes the inherent value and dignity of all human life from the moment of conception to natural death. SPUC's anti-euthanasia campaign is spearheaded by its handicap division, which works to stop discrimination against disabled people both inside the womb and after birth.
