ProLife Alliance » Euthanasia and the Law

Dominica Roberts on Euthanasia and Assisted Suicid...

Posted on 22 April 2013.

The ProLife Alliance's spokesman on euthanasia and assisted suicide is Dominica Roberts, who is also our representative on Care Not Killing, the umbrella group of organisations opposed to a change in the law on this subject. She has recently taken part in a debate on the subject at Brunel University, which you can listen to on Youtube...

Posted on 26 September 2012.

On Sunday 23 September the Liberal Democrats, who have consistently been pro-euthanasia, passed a motion at their conference calling for a bill on ‘medically assisted dying’ or, to be more accurate, "killing by doctors". They appealed to public opinion polls, using slanted questions and were influenced...

Tony Nicklinson case rejected...

Posted on 16 August 2012.

Although of course everyone has enormous sympathy for Tony Nicklinson's predicament, the court's decision not to allow doctors to kill patients is right. It will be a relief for thousands of handicapped, chronically ill, or very elderly: their lives will continue to be protected by the law. The very small number of disabled who...

Posted on 20 June 2012.

The Independent has produced a very thoughtful article on the dilemma involved in Tony Nicklinson's case. The ProLife Alliance is following the case and will write as it unfolds. Read More →

Posted on 20 June 2012.

Tony Nicklinson, who had a stroke 7 years ago and is paralysed from the neck down, is in court today asking for the law on murder to be changed so that a doctor may kill him, not immediately but when he chooses. His demands have been so one-sidedly promoted by the media, including, as usual, the supposedly unbiased BBC, that it is not surprising that...

Posted on 28 March 2012.

Yesterday, the House of Commons debated a motion from Richard Ottaway MP to welcome the Director of Public Policy for Prosecutors in Respect of Cases of Encouraging or Assisting Suicide, published in February 2010. The ProLife Alliance is delighted that all those present at the debate were unanimous in their support both of the main motion and...

Posted on 12 March 2012.

Tony Nicklinson wants doctors to be allowed to kill disabled people. The High Court's decision that the case can proceed is very frightening indeed for them. However sympathetic one might be to Mr. Nicklinson, his is a very rare condition. Hard cases do make bad law. The media, especially the BBC, repeatedly show...

Posted on 28 September 2011.

The ProLife Alliance welcomes today’s judgment which will protect the life of a 53 year old woman with minimal consciousness, known only as ‘M’. In 2003 ‘M’ suffered brain damage, although she is not in what is called a “persistent vegetative state”, or PVS. She responds to touch, can make...

M Case: Judgment due tomorrow...

Posted on 27 September 2011.

The ProLife Alliance is waiting for the judgment on the M Case, which is due at 10 o'clock tomorrow in Court 50 at the Royal Courts of Justice. We tried to intervene in the case, believing that our knowledge and expertise would aid the court in its decision-making. Unfortunately the Official Solicitor, the relevant NHS Trust and family...

Posted on 24 August 2011.

The ProLife Alliance has expressed concern at a paralysed man’s request that the English high court should let doctors help him kill himself. Mrs Dominica Roberts, the alliance’s chairman, said: “If the court gives in to Martin’s request, it will place many more vulnerable people at risk. The long-term...

Posted on 19 July 2011.

Today the case of a 53 year old woman with minimal consciousness goes to court for a 10 day hearing. In 2003 ‘M’ suffered brain damage, although she is not in a persistent vegetative state. She responds to touch, can move an arm and can put her tongue in and out. Her mother, who has Alzeimers, has made an application for food and fluid to be...

The legal aspects of palliative care...

Posted on 20 May 2011.

Professor John Keown, the Rose F. Kennedy Professor of Christian Ethics at the Kennedy Institute of Ethics, Georgetown University, Washington, D.C., spoke on May 16th in a House of Lords committee room about the legal aspects of palliative care, to an audience mostly composed of medical personnel. The talk was arranged by the Anscombe Bioethics Centre...

A small victory for common sense...

Posted on 2 February 2011.

The European Court of Human Rights, in a unanimous verdict in the case of Haas v. Switzerland, has declared that there is no right to assisted suicide. This case was about a clash between Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which guarantees a right to privacy, and Article 2 which guarantees the right to life. The Court stated that...

Posted on 2 December 2010.

The Scottish Parliament on December 1st 2010 decisively rejected Margo MacDonald MSP’s End of Life Assistance (Scotland) Bill, by 85 votes to 16 with 2 abstentions. Please click on link to see breakdown of MSP vote. It is the latest in a long line of legislatures which have resisted the persistent attempts of the pro-euthanasia lobby. The more closely...

Posted on 18 November 2010.

The ProLife Alliance welcomes the rejection, by the End of Life Assistance (Scotland) Bill Committee, of Margo MacDonald MSP’s arguments for legalising assisted suicide and voluntary euthanasia. The Committee’s Stage 1 report published today, 18 November 2010, does not therefore recommend the general principles of the Bill to the Scottish Parliament,...

Posted on 20 July 2010.

Tony Nicklinson, a former engineering executive who suffered a stroke in 2005 which left him paralysed from the neck down, yesterday launched a legal bid to insure immunity for his wife if she were to kill him. Mr Nicklinson, who suffers from ‘locked-in syndrome’, is not terminally ill or in great pain but says that he is fed up with his life and...

Most MSPs oppose end-of-life bill...

Posted on 25 January 2010.

The majority of MSPs are opposed to plans to allow terminally ill people to seek a doctor’s help in dying. An anonymous survey of two-thirds of MSPs carried out by BBC Scotland showed 17 supported the bill, 53 were against and 20 were undecided. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/8477542.stm Read More →

Posted on 21 January 2010.

The ProLife Alliance is in agreement with the verdict in the case of Frances Inglis, yesterday found guilty of the murder and attempted murder of her son, Thomas Inglis. During the trial, Frances Inglis admitted to fatally injecting her son with heroin in November 2008, as she believed that injuries he sustained in an accident left him with a reduced...

Posted on 3 December 2009.

A number of MPs have joined forces to table an early day motion in opposition to the DPP issuing guidelines on assisted suicide. We encourage you to read it, here: http://edmi.parliament.uk/EDMi/EDMDetails.aspx?EDMID=39862&SESSION=903 Please lend your support to the EDM by sending a letter to your local MP urging him or her to sign it and by...

Have Your Say On Assisted Suicide...

Posted on 19 November 2009.

The legalisation of euthanasia in the Netherlands began with a decision not to prosecute certain kinds of cases. There is a real danger that a similar thing might now happen in the United Kingdom. The Director of Public Prosecutions has recently issued guidance about when he will prosecute cases of “assisting” suicide. These currently include...

Posted on 23 October 2009.

The Liverpool Care Pathway is the recommended management of dying patients. Its supporters claim that it provides clear helpful criteria for assessing whether a patient is at the very end of life, whether further treatment is useful and if so what, whether sedation is needed to prevent pain or discomfort, and so on. The LCP has been carefully...

Posted on 21 October 2009.

The Pro Life Alliance took part in a debate “This house would legalise assisted suicide for the terminally ill” at Manchester University on October 20th. Sarah Wootton and Edward Turner of Dignity in Dying spoke for the motion; Jamie Bogle, Barrister, speaking on behalf of ALERT, and Dominica Roberts, ProLife Alliance, opposed. There...

Posted on 25 September 2009.

The ProLife Alliance is strongly opposed to the publication of interim guidelines by Director of Public Prosecutions Keir Starmer on 23rd September 2009, regarding the prosecution of assisted suicide in England and Wales. Chairman of the ProLife Alliance Dominica Roberts issues the following statement: “Although the DPP states that assisted suicide...

Sad loss of double suicide...

Posted on 15 July 2009.

The ProLife Alliance defends the right to life from conception to natural death, and is therefore opposed to assisted suicide or euthanasia in any form whatsoever. We are proud of the fact that the United Kingdom has some of the best palliative care specialists and end of life medicine in the world, with hospice care of the highest level. It is extremely...

Posted on 9 July 2009.

The ProLife Alliance welcomes the House of Lords decision on July 7th, to reject, by 194 votes to 141, Lord Falconer’s perverse amendment to the Coroners and Justice Bill. The intention of the Coroners and Justice Bill is to prohibit incitement to suicide. However, euthanasia supporters had tabled an amendment in support of assisted suicide,...

Posted on 31 May 2009.

The Observer reports that 800 people have become members of Dignitas, the Swiss pro-euthanasia organisation. It also reports that a group of peers will table an amendment this week to the Coroners and Justice Bill to lift the threat of prosecution from people in England and Wales who assist suicide. Regrettably, the Observer does not include any prolife...

Posted on 23 March 2009.

Patricia Hewitt, the former Health Secretary, has begun a campaign to “gain the legal right for people to assist their own death”, reports The Times. During her time as Health Secretary she read many accounts of people’s suffering, and was prompted to consider how she would respond in a similar situation of crippling illness. She...

Posted on 23 March 2009.

BBC NewsOnline reports that former health secretary, Patricia Hewitt, is urging MPs to change the law to allow people to take terminally ill patients abroad for assisted suicide. Patricia Hewitt has tabled an amendment to the Coroners and Justice Bill which would allow families of gravely ill people to help them commit suicide abroad without fear of...

Posted on 15 March 2009.

The Coroners and Justice bill is intended to tighten up the Suicide Act 1961, after the sad spate of suicides by young people in Bridgend. Ironically, pro-euthanasiasts have proclaimed their intention to subvert the intention of this bill, which is meant to cut down the number of suicides, by using it for exactly the opposite purpose. They intend to...

Posted on 15 February 2009.

On February 19th 2009, the Court of Appeal upheld the decision of the High Court that Debbie Purdy, who has multiple sclerosis, could not compel the Director of Public Prosecutions to state whether her husband would be prosecuted if he were to take her to Zurich to commit suicide. The Court of Appeal made the right decision. The number of people who...

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