Scottish Catholic Observer

A new onslaught on disabled and vulnerable people was launched yesterday.

This is the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children’s (SPUC)’s view of the introduction by Lord Falconer of a bill in the House of Lords to legalise assisted suicide. An SPUC spokesman said they and other pro-life groups would resist the proposals ‘with all our strength.’

Labour peer Lord Falconer (above) yesterday tabled a private members bill that will seek to legalise assisted suicide for the terminally ill in England and Wales. It is expected that under the bill, mentally-capable adults with less than six months to live would be able to request help to end their lives.

Previous attempts to legalise assisted suicide and euthanasia have met with strong opposition in the House of Lords, but Paul Tully, SPUC Pro-Life’s general secretary, said the move was part of a general attack on the culture of life.

“Earlier this week, we saw ‘Martin,’ Paul Lamb and Jane Nicklinson renew the legal attacks on the right to life through the courts,” Mr Tully said. “This means that disabled people and elderly people are in the firing-line from several directions at once. Present financial difficulties in providing the necessary health and social care will be leveraged by euthanasia supporters to aid their cause. Any down-grading of legal protection for vulnerable lives should be resisted.”

He added that there is an ever-increasing effort to end the lives of the vulnerable before their time.

“We are also seeing disturbing abuses of palliative care, through incentivised pathways for example, which are being used to hasten or bring about death in many cases,” he said. “The pressure is on health trusts to put budgets before good care. This situation is being exploited by those who think that people with limited lives or serious disabilities should be helped to die.”