The spring conference at Brighton 2012 proposed a motion (F20) on Medically Assisted Dying which was carried and I was the only one who spoke against it. Now Lord Falconer has introduced a Bill on Assisted Dying for which I feel compelled to make a case against. On the wall at Lib Dem head office it say “The Liberal Democrats exist to build and safeguard a fair, free and open society, in which we seek to balance the fundamental values of liberty, equality and community, and in which no one shall be enslaved by poverty, ignorance or conformity“.The motion and proposed Bill are certainly progressive and have merit in their own right but I believe they are not of Liberal creed.

The section of society who may be affected by this Bill, I believe, will fall foul of “…enslaved by poverty, ignorance or conformity“.

Euthanasia was legalised in the Netherlands decades ago. Government-ordered surveys were carried out and clearly showed that non-voluntary life-termination could be as high as 1,000 people a year; this was over and above drugs given to explicitly end life (although the Government tried to gloss over these facts). The report also stated that non-voluntary life-termination were difficult to prevent.

The law permitting assisted suicide (though not euthanasia) in Oregon was passed in 1997. The state has not carried out proper surveys but the anecdotal evidence shows that patients are being pressured to die or been undertreated on the grounds they have an alternative – a suicide prescription. A Doctors confirmation is all that’s needed for such deaths; there is no independent control on the Doctors involvement. Also over time the State has become less keen to fund essential medical service in response to this change in the Law (see Assisted-suicide requests based on financial concerns).

There is a misconception that scores of people from Britain are going to Switzerland for medically assisted suicides. In 2012 Ludwig Minelli founder of Dignitas said that there were 1000 people who they assisted and well over 50% were from Germany (shockingly a growing number of people, across different age groups, approached Dignitas wanting to end their life because they didn’t wish to live any longer).

Medically Assisted Dying or assistance for those who have less than six months to live I believe with the best will in the world and tight procedures will result in pressure for this quick, cheap and easy alternative to be pushed upon a section of vulnerable members of our society (especially the elderly who are already disadvantaged in terminal care will suffer further if assisted dying is seen as a ‘quick fix’ for some). This is where I believe in time we will fail to uphold our values to ensure that there is no one“…enslaved by poverty, ignorance or conformity“ and the evidence from the Netherlands would suggest that in time a choice does becomes the preference.

My instinct is to ask you to always choose Life.

Cllr. Tahir Maher

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