British House Of Lords To Vote On Assisted Suicide

British House of Lords to vote on assisted suicide, May 19, 2009.

Peers are to be given a chance to vote to legalise euthanasia next month.

Ministers have confirmed that the House of Lords will get a free vote over whether or not to allow people to assist with suicide - including helping relatives travel to the Dignitas clinic in Switzerland to be killed.

The opportunity to introduce an assisted suicide law will come as the Government's Coroners and Justice Bill goes through its committee stage.

Peers who favour assisted dying, led by former Labour minister Baroness Jay, are likely to put down an amendment to legalise help for suicide.

The last time the Lords voted on assisted suicide, over Lord Joffe's private member's bill three years ago, the  proposal was heavily defeated.

A clause in the Government's Coroners and Justice Bill amends assisted suicide law, but only to extend the existing law to ban attempts to encourage suicide over the internet.

Justice Minister Lord Bach told peers that the Government does not think the Bill is a proper vehicle for legalising assisted suicide and that supporters of liberalising the law should bring in a fresh private member's bill.

But he added: 'We heard many passionate speeches on assisted suicide, either for a change in the law or for maintaining the law as it is. I was asked whether there would be a free vote on the Government’s side. The answer is yes.

'There will be a free vote on an amendment of the kind that my noble friend Lady Jay proposed. However, I must repeat the observation that I made many hours ago in my opening speech; namely, that we do not think this Bill is the appropriate vehicle in which to pursue a change in the law on this sensitive issue.'

The move brought warnings from opponents of euthanasia. 

Roman Catholic Archbishop of Cardiff, the Most Reverend Peter Smith, said: 'To amend the Bill, as some are suggesting, to permit assistance with suicide would be perverse. 

'It would result in a law that pointed in contradictory directions - banning encouragement with suicide but allowing assistance with it. 

'Legalising assistance with suicide is a complex and controversial issue that cannot be addressed simply via an amendment to a wide-ranging bill designed for other purposes.'

The Archbishop added: 'The issues surrounding legalisation of assisted suicide are not just ones of conscience or morality. There are also serious issues here of public safety, which it is the Government's responsibility to safeguard.'

At present anyone found guilty of helping someone else commit suicide faces a maximum jail sentence of 14 years.

But at least 100 Britons have travelled to the Dignitas clinic in Zurich to die, and some - including 23-year-old Daniel James, who was paralysed playing rugby - were not terminally ill.

Director of Public Prosecutions Keir Starmer QC has indicated that no-one will be prosecuted for helping a friend or relative travel to Switzerland to die, as long as they are not doing it for personal gain.

By Steve Doughty, Mail Online, London, UK