Scottish Churches, Pro-life Groups Criticise Guide to Assisted Suicide

|TOP|The Church of Scotland and Catholic Church in Scotland have joined with pro-life groups in criticising a new step-by-step guide on how to take part in assisted suicide at the controversial suicide clinic, Dignitas, in Switzerland.

The new guide, produced by the pro-suicide group Friends at the End, or Fate, have outlined the costs as well as provided more details on the procedures to follow in travelling to Zurich to use the medical help provided by Dignitas to commit suicide, reports The Scottish Sunday Herald.

Churches in Scotland and pro-life campaigners have, however, condemned the pamphlet, calling on the police to investigate its publication.

Dr Libby Wilson, convener of Fate, defended the booklet, saying it was intended to let people know what was actually involved in using the services of Dignitas.

“It is really quite a complicated set-up, there are lots of forms you have to fill in and it does take quite a long time,” she said. “You can’t just phone up Zurich and say, ‘Here I am, please take me.’ It is much more involved than that.

|QUOTE|“Dignitas is really quite keen for it to take time as they want to make sure that the person is absolutely sure about it.”

Wilson said of the pamphlet: “It is not actually encouraging people, it is saying that this is really quite difficult and you have to think really quite hard about it. It is not something you undertake lightly.”

Pro-lifers said at the weekend, however, that the booklet, which also provides information on who can use the Dignitas services, as well as what forms and documents are required to make an application, may contravene the 1961 Suicide Act, which makes it a criminal offence to “aid, abet, counsel or procure” a suicide.

A spokesman for the Church of Scotland said: “Doctor-assisted dying may currently be seen as one option for the terminally ill, but we are concerned that it may come to be regarded as duty in future.

“The situation must never arise where the terminally-ill or the very elderly feel pressurised by society to end their lives.”

|AD|Meanwhile a spokesman for the Catholic Church in Scotland said: “Groups and material like this clearly do encourage people to consider taking their own life.

“Voluntary euthanasia, as this would be styled, can very easily become involuntary when the climate in a society changes sufficiently that it becomes expected of people.”

Julia Millington, political director of the ProLife Alliance, said: “We would be very concerned about the move to promote the services of Dignitas. There have been a number of reports of investigations into the activities of Dignitas by the Swiss authorities. We feel it would be appropriate for police to investigate the activities of Fate.”

The debate over assisted suicide came re-emerged into the public spotlight recently, following the assisted suicide at the Dignitas clinic of Dr Anne Turner, a 66-year-old from Bath who was suffering an incurable disease.