Legal experts warn human rights committee of assisted suicide dangers
Yesterday in Parliament, the Joint Committee on Human Rights (JCGR) met to discuss ‘assisted dying’ from a human rights perspective.
The Committee heard the implications several different articles of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) could have on potential changes to the law.
Prof Richard Ekins, Professor of Law and Constitutional Government at Oxford University, emphasised the “clear evidence” of a slippery slope once assisted suicide or euthanasia are made legal, stating such practices would involve “crossing a major moral-legal threshold”.
Barrister James Strachan explained Article 14 of the ECHR, which protects against discrimination, could be used if assisted suicide is legalised. He cautioned that such a move would lead to “slippery slope” of ever-increasing expansion, including child euthanasia.
Overseas, countries such as the Netherlands and Belgium, have already announced plans to legalise child euthanasia for all ages.
Caroline Johnson MP named the prospect of children being included within assisted suicide provisions as “absolutely horrific”.
Catherine Robinson, spokesperson for Right To Life UK, commented:
“Prof Ekins is correct to emphasise that the right to life ought to be protected vigorously by the courts. Despite the attempts by advocates of assisted suicide to argue that a law could be introduced with a narrow scope in the UK, the JCHR evidence session blows out of the water the idea that assisted suicide could be introduced with reliable safeguards in the UK”. “Two prominent witnesses argued in favour of assisted suicide for the non-terminally ill and the hearing demonstrated that once the practice is permitted, the Rubicon would have been crossed and, as has happened elsewhere, the law would inevitably expand to include vulnerable groups, such as people with diabetes, people with disabilities and even children. It is vitally important, therefore, that the current prohibition is upheld”.
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