Lord Joffe's Bill will be debated in the House of Lords on 12 May 2006
08 May 2006
The House of Lords will debate Lord Joffe’s Bill on Assisted Dying on Friday 12 May 2006.
Action
Contact your MP, write to Lords and to the Prime Minister. 
Support the‘Care Not Killing Campaign’.
Sign the online petition.
The petition will be delivered to 10, Downing Street at 12:00 on Friday 12 May, and will be followed by a rally to oppose the Bill. Get involved.
Don Horrocks, Head of Public Affairs at the Evangelical Alliance, explains why Christians should fight the proposal:
So-called ‘Patient Assisted Dying’ aims to legalise assisting patients to die – in effect, state-approved, legalised killing – notwithstanding the impression conveyed that killing might, in certain circumstances, be merciful and compassionate. Relief of pain is usually inextricably mixed up with euthanasia by those who advocate it. But why? Pain relief is part and parcel of everyday medicine. We do not need a new Act of Parliament for doctors and nurses to provide pain relief for their patients. Yet the impression with the Joffe Bill is that anyone opposed to it is somehow in favour of pain and suffering. The Evangelical Alliance believes the social consequences of passing such a Bill would be incalculable, especially for the sick and disabled, the vulnerable and those who might feel themselves to be a burden on families and society. In a short space of time euthanasia could easily be offered routinely to patients. Who decides what ‘unbearable suffering’ is? Euthanasia would become a ‘symptom control choice’ – one option of ‘treatment’ amongst others. Not everything in life can be reduced to a matter of apparent choice – choices always carry consequences. As we have clearly maintained throughout this debate, ‘care’ and ‘killing’ can never be synonyms.
Of course, for those who suffer themselves or who have to endure the pain of loved ones suffering the emotional conflict should not be underestimated. But ours is the first generation that has the means and the will to offer a apparently easy life and death choice. Despite what some will see as the supposed reasonableness of such an offer, we need to be careful not to open a Pandora’s box that can never again be shut. The Abortion Act is a good example of a slippery slope – it was originally designed only for extreme cases and to be used sparingly. But it was ‘foothold legislation’ and now we see the results some 40 years later – on demand killing of the unborn.
You can either open the door to euthanasia or keep it shut. There is no middle ground. If you open the door just a little soon it will be wide open. Euthanasia must never become part of normal medical practice. Society must safeguard the right to life as well as maintain the inviolable sanctity of life.
Read the full text of the speech Dr Don Horrocks gave to the Christian Broadcasting Council in April.
Notes to editors: The Evangelical Alliance UK, formed in 1846, is an umbrella group representing over one million evangelical Christians in the UK and is made up of member churches, organisations and individuals. As part of a movement ‘uniting to change society’, the Alliance promotes unity and truth, acts as an evangelical voice to the state, society and the wider Church, and provides resources to help members and other evangelicals live out their faith in their communities.
