Awaiting the Commission on Assisted Dying’s Report.
- In the independent, former Metropolitan Police commissioner, Lord Blair, explains why he believes the law needs to change and how his opinion was strengthened upon hearing evidence on the issue during the Commission’s consultation. Lord Blair tells us that the Commission will recommend the ‘creation of a humane, coherent and enforceable framework of law, great news’;
- Baroness Warnock objects, in the Guardian, to the current state of the law in which assisting a suicide is a crime equivalent (in theory) to murder. She argues that either Parliament should change the law to distinguish compassionate assistance to die with malicious or commercial assistance, or expand and elaborate the term ‘murder’ in line with the Law Society’s previous recommendations. Baroness Warnock urges society and Parliament to pay attention to the Commission’s findings when they are released and not ‘simply write off its conclusions’;
- Continuing the coverage in the Telegraph Lord Falconer discusses the aims of the Commission and his hope that the report will ‘both stimulate debate and guide policy-makers when making future decisions’. Lord Falconer affirmed that the Commission’s report finds the current law unsatisfactory, and concludes that Britain would need its own distinctive and heavily safeguarded system of assisted dying rather than mirror the legislation of any other jurisdictions.
We’re looking forward to seeing the full detail of the Report once the Commission launches it on Thursday.
See also:
Law on Assisted Dying Incoherent – Press Association, January 1, 2012
End the ban on assisted suicide, report will urge the government – The Guardian, January 1, 2012
Lord Falconer: assisted suicide law fails to protect or punish – The Telegraph, January 1, 2012
David Cameron faces new pressure to end ban on assisted suicide – The Daily Mail, January 2, 2012