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SPUC welcomes Royal College of Nursing rejection of assisted suicide bill
Westminster, 9 September 2004 - The Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC) has welcomed the Royal College of Nursing's rejection of the legalisation of assisted suicide and active voluntary euthanasia.
The College said that a consultation of its members had received an
"overwhelming response" opposing Lord Joffe's Assisted Dying for the
Terminally Bill and "reaffirm[ing] the core principles which lie at
the heart of nursing: valuing life and ensuring patients are well
cared for." The College condemned the notion that some lives were 'not
worth living'.
Anthony Ozimic, SPUC political secretary, said: "We strongly endorse
the College's analysis that Lord Joffe's Bill 'normalises the concept
that some lives are not worth living which is contrary to a core
nursing belief in the intrinsic value of life.'
"The RCN's findings are highly significant, in contrast to the Voluntary Euthanasia Society's recent polls which should be treated with the greatest scepticism. We are concerned that the VES's recent polls may have misled the poll's respondents with ambiguous questions which confuse palliative care with lethal injections. Compassion in the natural dying process should not be confused with unnatural death through intentional killing. We challenge the VES to publish in full all the questions which were asked in their polls. We suspect that the VES's claims and the true opinions of the poll's respondents do not match."
