Warnings sounded against assisted suicide amid fresh calls for law change.
(Photo: Getty/iStock)Fresh calls for assisted suicide to be legalised are being challenged over concerns for the vulnerable.
TV personality and philanthropist Dame Esther Rantzen reignited the debate this week after telling BBC Radio 4's The Today Podcast that she had joined the Dignitas clinic in Switzerland and plans to go there if treatment for her stage four lung cancer is unsuccessful.
Legislation to change the law was last defeated in 2015 but Work and Pensions Secretary Mel Stride said this week that he "would not be averse" to a new Commons debate.
The 2015 bill was supported by Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer who said on Friday that there were "grounds for changing the law" on assisted suicide.
Assisted suicide remains a crime in England and Wales and is punishable by up to 14 years in prison.
Critics of a change to the law have warned against introducing assisted suicide because of the risk to vulnerable people.
They point to countries like Canada, Belgium and the Netherlands where legalisation has been a "slippery slope" towards ever expanding criteria, including assisted suicide for mental health issues and minors.
Dr David Randall, lead campaigner for Our Duty of Care, a coalition of doctors opposed to assisted suicide, wrote to The Times: "Sir, Esther Rantzen is the latest public figure to come out in favour of assisted dying. Educated, articulate and well-connected, such individuals have an experience of life that is very different from the patients I look after.
"In 15 years of working as a doctor in east London, I have been asked only once by a patient to end their life. Far more commonly, my attempts to institute humane and effective end-of-life care is hampered by fears that I might be trying to do exactly that.
"Our politicians are to be commended for rejecting the beguiling claim that assisted suicide offers an easy solution to the complex challenges of suffering and death.
"Instead they have preserved a law that protects those whose voices are marginalised, a law that enjoys widespread support among disadvantaged and minority groups."
Others have expressed concerns, with crossbench peer Lord Alton saying that assisted suicide "represents danger to the safety of the vulnerable & disabled people".
Danny Kruger MP has said, "All experience shows legalising assisted dying is dangerous for the most vulnerable. It is deeply wrong that its advocates ignore all this evidence to promote a policy that will undermine end-of-life care." CT.
