Britain's upper house to discuss euthanasia bill

Britain's House of Lords is to debate a bill on assisted suicide on Monday that would allow doctors to prescribe, but not administer, lethal drugs to terminally ill people.

Euthanasia or assisted dying is banned in Britain but so called "death tourism," where people travel from the UK to end their lives in countries which permit it, is on the rise.

Under the bill, only "mentally competent adults" would be able to ask for assistance.

The peer introducing the bill in the upper house, Lord Joffe, told Reuters he was confident it would be supported. "This is about preventing the suffering of terminally ill patients for whom palliative care is not the solution. It's about the prevention of suffering," he said.

The bill will be formally introduced in early November and voted on at a later date.

Pope John Paul called euthanasia a distortion of medical ethics on Friday, saying doctors should not decide "who can live and who must die."

But while condemning euthanasia, the Pope said terminally ill patients have the right to refuse medicine and therapy that prolongs their lives artificially without hope of recovery.

The Pope's words, read in a major address to Catholic health workers attending a Vatican conference, come at a time when several countries are debating euthanasia laws.
For more information check: Euthanasia distorts medical ethics, Pope says

Joffe said if backed, it could be next year before the bill moved to be debated in the House of Commons where it is unlikely to be supported.

Euthanasia is a controversial issue in Britain and both Anglican and Catholic church leaders have urged peers not to back the bill.

Under current laws, Britons face 14 years in jail for helping a patient die, a penalty that is among the harshest in Europe.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Williams, told the Mail on Sunday newspaper he remained opposed to the practice, despite having watched his mother's "painful months of decline and dementia".

Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, head of the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales, told BBC One's Sunday AM programme he was totally against a voluntary euthanasia bill.

British peers called on Monday for a full parliamentary debate on euthanasia, a move that right-to-die activists said marked a step towards writing some form of euthanasia into law.

Britain forbids euthanasia but so called "death tourism" - in which terminally ill people travel from the UK to end their lives elsewhere - is on the rise.
For more information check: Peers should debate UK euthanasia laws