Friday, July 03, 2009

British religious trio call for end to "legal euthanasia" move

Britain's Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams, Vincent Nichols, the Archbishop of Westminster, and Sir Jonathan Sacks, the country's Chief Rabbi want to put a stop to moves that could legalise euthanasia.

They are concerned that a House of Lords amendment would pave the way to allowing families to help loved ones to die abroad free from the threat of prosecution, The Daily Telegraph reported.

The legal change "would surely put vulnerable people at serious risk, especially sick people who are anxious about the burden their illness may be placing on others," they said in a joint letter to the publication.

Lord Falconer, the former Lord Chancellor, made the proposal to drop the threat of prosecution to those accompanying the terminally ill to die abroad, in an amendment to the Coroners and Justice Bill last month. It could be debated in the Lords as soon as this week.

In their letter, the clerics criticised legislators for trying to legalise euthanasia by the back door.

"This amendment would mark a shift in British law towards legalising euthanasia. We do not believe that such a fundamental change in the law should be sought by way of an amendment to an already complex Bill. It should be rejected."

Under British law assisting a suicide carries a sentence of up to 14 years.

Although at least 115 Britons have travelled to Switzerland, where assisted suicide is legal, to die at the Dignitas clinic in Zurich and some 800 more are on the clinic's waiting list, no Briton who has accompanied a dying friend or relative to Dignitas has so far been prosecuted.
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Source (CTHN)

SV (ED)