[Right_to_die] Doc calls for law to allow terminally-ill patients the right to die

[World right-to-die news list (nonprofit)]

Make assisted suicide legal, says top doc

by Amanda Crook
Manchester Evening News
June 02, 2009

A DOCTOR is calling for a new law to allow terminally-ill patients the
right to die.

Dr Kailash Chand, a GP from Ashton under Lyne, wants assisted deaths to be
legal for people who are mentally competent and have been given the green
light by two doctors.

He is also urging the government to stop prosecuting people who help
friends or relatives go to euthanasia clinics abroad.

Doctors will vote on the proposals at a British Medical Association
meeting in Liverpool on June 29. If Dr Chand is successful, the powerful
doctors' union would lobby for a change in the law.

The move came as it emerged 800 Britons have become members of the
Dignitas clinic in Switzerland, the first step towards ending their lives.

Today multiple sclerosis sufferer Debbie Purdy, 45, will take her fight
for the right to die to the House of Lords - asking if her husband will be
prosecuted if he helps her go abroad to a suicide clinic.

Dr Chand, GP regional representative of the BMA, said: "I have seen first
hand the suffering this law causes and, following the case of Debbie
Purdy, I believe it is time for a change.

Decisions

"I accept the law should protect vulnerable people from abuse, but it
should not criminalise people who accompany those who make rational
decisions to end their suffering.

"My plea is simple - assisted suicide would allow the individual the right
to choose the time of his or her death and a doctor should help.

"The right to life and the right to a private and family life under the
European Convention on Human Rights should include decisions about the
quality of life, including decisions about death if the quality of life is
no longer good enough."

Dr Chand will put his case to a meeting of doctors from around the
country. Currently, the BMA does not support assisted suicide. Recent
polls show more than 80 per cent of the public want it to be made legal.

A group of peers also want a law change to end the risk of prosecution for
people who help relatives and friends travel abroad to die.

Led by former Lord Chancellor Lord Falconer and Baroness Jay, former
leader of the Lords, the group is to table an amendment this week to the
Coroners and Justice Bill to try to lift the threat of prosecution.