Dying, vulnerable people need the law to protect them

This is the first of a series of three posts about the right to die, end of life care and its legislation.

Assisting someone to take their own life is punishable by up to 14 years in prison. In Sept. 2019 yet another case of assisted suicide hit the news: Mavis Eccleston was cleared of manslaughter and murder after admitting to giving her husband an overdose of medicine being used to treat the pain of his terminal cancer. The Crown Prosecution Service said “There was sufficient evidence to provide a realistic prospect of conviction… it was in the public interest to prosecute” and had a duty to act. After a trial lasting two weeks, the jury took just four hours to clear Mavis of the charges. The decision was unanimous.

Guidelines published by the Director of Public Prosecutions say people acting wholly out of compassion could avoid prosecution for helping people end their lives, because the assistant has good motives. The role of DPP guidelines is to provide certainty where there is a legal gap. However we must have concerns about the democratic legitimacy of the DPP, setting out policy in this area and thus furtively, rewriting the law. This is a slippery slope. This doesn’t preserve life. It cannot properly protect vulnerable individuals because investigation of the circumstances and consideration of vulnerability only happen after death.

The former Lord Chancellor, Charles Falconer, who chaired the Commission on Assisted Dying said:

The law on assisted dying in Britain is an incoherent, cruel, hypocritical mess.

Guidelines and precedents have been set, and so the time has come to more openly adopt a position that honestly recognises the issues, and to restore a measure of cohesion to the law.

Given the risks and potential consequences of changing law by stealth, and law being synthesised without parliamentary scrutiny, Government must act. Legislation on Palliative Sedation, Assisted Suicide, and Physician Assisted Death is necessary, if nothing else to provide the important safeguards needed for the vulnerable at the end of their lives who are currently not protected. Parliament and Government must not shirk their responsibilities. This is a failure of our democratic process and must change, because the job of Government is to protect the vulnerable in our society.

No Government has ever taken responsibility for this, and it remains Governments of all persuasions’ view that any relaxation of the law in this area is an issue of individual conscience and a matter for Parliament to decide, rather than one for Government; and yet parties are whipped when taking decisions on going to war. For any such law to pass in the future it must become Government policy – private members bills will always fail. Government must develop the green paper, the subsequent white paper, create the large amount of time needed to prevent such a bill talked out, and to prevent scheduling when a session of Parliament will be prorogued.

We must not let polarisation of heartfelt opinion hijack this debate, or we are failing to act in the best interests of scared, vulnerable people. The Liberal Democrats must be the party to make this a policy commitment if we care about protecting the most vulnerable and about democratic and legislative process.

 

* Dr David Harding is a Lib Dem member, and a former Lecturer and NHS Consultant

Read more by or more about .
This entry was posted in Op-eds.
Advert

2 Comments

Post a Comment

Lib Dem Voice welcomes comments from everyone but we ask you to be polite, to be on topic and to be who you say you are. You can read our comments policy in full here. Please respect it and all readers of the site.

To have your photo next to your comment please signup your email address with Gravatar.

Your email is never published. Required fields are marked *

*
*
Please complete the name of this site, Liberal Democrat ...?

Advert

Recent Comments

  • Joseph Bourke
    The UK strategic defence review appears to be being rapidly overtaken by events. The review was ordered to deliver answers for a defence budget that will increa...
  • Joseph Bourke
    Echoing France's Napoleon Bonaparte, U.S. President Donald Trump on Saturday took to social media to signal continued resistance to limits on his executive auth...
  • Slamdac
    "Mainstream parties are perceived as having done more to exacerbate the problems for young men with their support for diversity, equality and inclusion (DEI) pr...
  • Nigel Quinton
    Whatever happened to Torsten Bell when he became an MP? (And now Pensions Minister). His interview on Politics Joe "Why Britain is Poor" in 2023 as summarised b...
  • Christopher Haigh
    The re-nationalisation of the energy industry should be the main government priority, followed by that of water supply and rail transport. Energy is the. bedroc...