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SPUC relieved at defeat of assisted suicide bill
Westminster, 12 May 2006 -- Lord Joffe's Assisted Dying for the Terminally Ill bill was defeated in a vote in the House of Lords today. Some 90 peers participated in the debate, including many medical peers and disabled peers who spoke strongly against the Bill.
The Society for
the Protection of Unborn Children (which campaigns to protect the right to life
from conception to natural death) expressed great relief at the result. SPUC has
opposed successive efforts to introduce the Joffe Bill, and led national
letter-writing campaigns lobbying members of the upper house to reject the bill
today.
SPUC general
secretary, Paul Tully said: "The bill runs counter to the right to life of
gravely ill and dying people, and would undermine the status of elderly and
disabled people. We believe it would also lead to the practice of active
euthanasia - extending the provision for passive euthanasia in the Mental
Capacity Act, due to be implemented next year.
"The
views of medical bodies, disability rights groups and faith organisations have
rightly been prominent in the debate, and the need to protect rather than
further undermine, the right to life has won the vote today. We must not relax
our efforts to ensure the wider and more effective provision of palliative care,
which all those participating the debate have agreed upon."
148 peers voted against the bill and 100 supported it.
