Christian social concern charity CARE is to launch a high-profile campaign against euthanasia in the UK in the run up to Lord Joffe’s private member’s bill, due to be debated in the House of Lords next week, The Church of England Newspaper reported.

|TOP|The ‘Life Valued’ campaign, in partnership with disability charity, Through the Roof, calls on all Christians to actively oppose the bill.

The proposed bill will, if passed, overturn the current UK ban on the right to die, enabling “a competent adult who is suffering unbearably as a result of terminal illness to receive medical assistance to die at his/her own considered and persistent risk”.

Through the Roof founder, Joni Eareckson Tada, is a high-profile opponent of euthanasia in the U.S., who also campaigns against abortion and cloning. Mrs Tada will team up with CARE chairman, Lyndon Bowring, on a number of public meetings across the UK on the issue.

“We hope the public meetings will be a huge success,” said Bowring, who praised Mrs Tada, who was paralysed from the neck down after a driving accident in 1967, for her efforts in campaigning against euthanasia.

He said: “Joni is one of the most outstanding spokespersons worldwide, and a great ambassador for proclaiming the truth – that life is sacred and we are all special in the sight of God. She has been fearless in challenging abortion and euthanasia.”

One of the most vigorous opponents of the euthanasia bill within the House of Lords, Lord Alton, has also challenged the right to die, recently arguing: “When you legalise euthanasia or assisted suicide you are effectively telling patients they’d be better off dead.”

He also said that “instead of this counsel of despair” the government “should continue to support and develop our palliative care services and hospices” before “inflicting such dangerous laws on us”.

Lord Joffe’s euthanasia bill will be reintroduced for debate within the House of Lord Tuesday, after running out of time in the previous parliament.

Opponents of the bill fear the UK will go the same way as the Dutch if the bill is introduced, where between one in 32-38 deaths is now through assisted suicide and voluntary euthanasia.

Earlier in the year, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, called on Christians to continue their opposition to euthanasia, warning that a change in the law “could end up undermining just that broad sense of unconditional human worth and value in which compassion itself is grounded”.