Care Not Killing welcomes BMA decision on assisted suicide

The Care not Killing Alliance has welcomed the British Medical Association's decision to oppose any decriminalisation of assistance with suicide.

The BMA voted overwhelmingly at its annual representative meeting in Liverpool on Wednesday to reject a motion calling for support for a change in the law in the light of recent high profile cases such as that of Multiple Sclerosis sufferer Debbie Purdy.

It comes as the House of Lords is about to vote on a hugely controversial amendment to the Coroners and Justice Bill by Lord Falconer, which would allow relatives assisting people who are mentally competent and terminally ill to end their lives at suicide facilities like Dignitas in Switzerland to escape investigation or prosecution.

Care Not Killing Director Dr Peter Saunders said, "British doctors do not want any change in the law to allow assisted suicide or euthanasia and today they have sent a strong signal to Parliament not to tamper with the present law.

"This is hugely significant as it comes in the same week as a similar warning from senior legal figures who in a letter to the Times last Monday have called the Falconer amendment ‘ill-defined, unsound and unnecessary’ and said that its provisions are ‘lacking in rigour' and would fail to protect vulnerable sick people from unscrupulous coercion and abuse."

Care Not Killing said the current law was "clear and right" and deters would-be abusers. Despite a sustained media campaign built around a small number of high-profile cases by Dignity in Dying the demand for assisted suicide in Britain remains very small.

Over the last 10 years only 115 Britons have travelled to Switzerland to kill themselves representing just one in 50,000 deaths over the same period. Care Not Killing said changing the law "for a few determined individuals would put a much larger number of vulnerable people at risk".

Opponents of assisted suicide argue that the terminally and chronically ill recognise need legal protection and better care.