An amendment to a bill going through the Houses of Parliament in Britain proposes that 'mercy killers' should face charges of manslaughter and not murder. The bill, The Coroners and Justice Bill was originally aimed at tightening up the Suicide Act 1961 to prevent the internet promotion of youth suicide. However three Lords have brought amendments seeking to use it as a vehicle to facilitate assisted suicide.
 
Lord Joffe,  a supporter of Voluntary Euthanasia, says that a person “moved by compassion in response to repeated requests by a terminally ill, mentally competent adult who is suffering unbearably, to assist (him) to end his life," should be charged with manslaughter and not murder.
 
"I can't see what there is in this amendment to stop a future Harold Shipman,” commented Peter Saunders, the director of Care Not Killing, which campaigns against assisted suicide.
 
Another amendment decriminalises the act of bringing someone abroad for assisted suicide and a third suggests that it should be legal to assist suicide in certain circumstances.
 
The bill is being debated against the background of a recent appeal to the House of Lords by an MS sufferer, Debbie Purdy, who is fighting for the right for her husband to take her to a Swiss Euthanasia clinic without being prosecuted.
 
Currently it is an offence to assist a suicide but the law is rarely enforced. An earlier judgement on the case, ruled that the Director of Public Prosecutions is not required to issue a public prosecuting policy on suicide tourism and whether people like Purdy's husband will be prosecuted.
 
Care not Killing, has warned that Britain is in danger of sleepwalking into euthanasia as a result of the Purdy and other cases.
 
“Lord Falconer is attempting to hijack the [Coroners and Justice] bill for a completely different purpose – to allow terminally ill people to travel abroad for assisted suicide. The clear intention of the pro-euthanasia lobby is to establish a beachhead for further assaults on the law in the next parliament,” said Peter Saunders.
 
If assisted suicide is decriminalised for terminally ill patients travelling abroad, it will have been established as a 'therapeutic option', he said.  Lobbyists will then seek to extend the selection criteria through bringing new cases through the courts and new bills through Parliament .
 
“Then it will be argued on grounds of equality, as it has in other parts of the world, that assisted suicide should be offered for chronically ill and disabled people who want it, that euthanasia should be offered for those who are unable to self-administer lethal drugs, and that non-voluntary euthanasia should be available for mentally incompetent people, including minors, whose lives are judged not to be worth living or who ‘would not want to have lived this way’.”
 
Pro-life leaders have pointed out that all the British bodies of medical professional, including the  BMA and the Royal Medical Colleges, remained” firmly opposed to a change in the law believing it to be both dangerous and unnecessary.”