Euthanasia Bill clears first hurdle

A move to legalise euthanasia in Britain has cleared its first hurdle.

The House of Lords has agreed to give a Bill, which would give terminally ill people the right to be helped to die, a second reading.

That decision means Lord Joffe, the peer who is championing the legislation, will now be able to present detailed proposals to parliament.

However, the Bill is unlikely to make it into law because it does not have government support.

'Public support'
Earlier, Lord Joffe told peers people should be allowed to die "with dignity and without suffering".

The crossbencher said a majority of the public supported a change in the law, and said figures from other countries suggested up to 26,000 patients a year were already helped to die by their doctors.

He said: "We have laws in place which are clearly out of tune with the views of the majority of the population.

"They are laws which offend against the principle of autonomy and they are laws which place both doctors and patients at risk."

He added: "Furthermore, they are laws which do not adequately prevent offences which they are intended to prevent.

"The purpose of this law is to change the law in the interest of patients, of doctors and society as a whole."

The Bill, should it become law, would legalise voluntary euthanasia under strict conditions.

It would allow a competent adult suffering from a terminal disease or a serious, incurable physical illness to ask for medical assistance to die.

They would need two doctors - one a consultant - to confirm their diagnosis.

The recent cases of Dianne Pretty, who had Motor Neurone Disease but lost her court fight for her husband to be allowed to help her die, and Reginald Crew, an MND patient who went to Switzerland so he could be helped to die, have highlighted the issue of assisted dying.

Mrs Pretty's husband Brian supports the Bill.

But there is strong opposition to a change in the law from disabled rights groups.

And Catholic bishops urged peers to reject the proposals saying they would weaken protection for the elderly and destroy trust between doctors and patients.

'Sympathetic'
However Lord Joffe has won the support of Karen Sanders who chairs the Royal College of Nursing's ethics forum.

Ms Sanders, who specialised in intensive care nursing and neurosciences told the Guardian on Friday: "I feel strongly about euthanasia because I believe that competent adults who have incurable or insufferable diseases should have the right to make their own choices about their own lives."