We support patient autonomy and work to protect patients from the imposition of other people's personal religious views.
There is widespread support amongst the public for a compassionate law that permits assisted dying under certain circumstances.
But religious lobbying exerts a disproportionate influence on the debate on assisted dying, frustrating much-needed reform.
Assisted dying (AD) is when a person chooses to be given help to die, usually because they are terminally ill and suffering unbearably.
AD is legal in a growing number of countries around the world. In all these jurisdictions there are strict guidelines and safeguards to ensure AD is not misused. Where AD is an option, it complements palliative care rather than replacing it.
AD is not explicitly legal anywhere in the UK. Terminally ill people who wish to end their suffering more quickly have very few options.
Travelling to a country where their death can be assisted legally isn't a viable option for most, due to the high expense and the difficulties in travelling with a terminal illness. What's more, friends and relatives who accompany or help someone travel abroad for AD may be prosecuted.
Terminally ill people in the UK may therefore resort to taking their own life, leading to botched suicides, or asking the help of loved ones. This puts friends and relatives in a horrendous position: either they must watch their loved one suffer, or they must help them die and risk jail in the process.
The largest poll ever conducted on assisted dying found 84% of people in Britain support a change in the law. This includes 82% of Christians and 90% of nonreligious people.
Many regard refusing people a final relief from unbearable suffering as a harmful act. But strong opposition to AD comes from religious leaders who think AD goes against the will of their gods.
We support the democratic right of all people to contribute to the debate on AD. But policy decisions should be guided by evidence, compassion and respect for the principle of patient autonomy, rather than religious dogma. The views of the general public, professionals and relevant organisations should be fairly reflected at policy level.
Within the National Secular Society, individual members hold a range of views about AD. All are agreed that religious privilege should have no place in the decision-making process.
Take action!
1. Write to your MP
Ask your MP to support properly regulated assisted dying.
2. Share your story
Tell us why you support this campaign, and how you are personally affected by the issue. You can also let us know if you would like assistance with a particular issue.
3. Join the National Secular Society
Become a member of the National Secular Society today! Together, we can separate religion and state for greater freedom and fairness.
Latest updates
New campaign urges party leaders to support change in the law on assisted dying
Posted: Fri, 20 Jun 2014 10:03
The campaign group Dignity in Dying has launched a campaign aimed at the three main party leaders asking them to support a change in the law to enable assisted dying.
A Private Members' Bill – The Assisted Dying Bill – introduced by Lord Falconer, will receive its Second Reading in the House of Lords on Friday, 18 July. Ahead of the debate, Dignity in Dying are calling on supporters of a change in the law to email party leaders to call on them to back the Bill.
The Bill would only legalise assisted dying for terminally ill adults with six months or less to live. The patient would be provided with life-ending medication that they would have to take themselves after two doctors declared their illness meant they that they had six months or less to live, and had made a clear and settled decision with time to consider all other options.
The proposed Bill does not permit the doctors to administer the medication, would not legalise assisted suicide for people who are not dying (for example disabled people or older people) and would only apply to adults with mental capacity both at the time of their request and at the time of their death.
A recent YouGov poll (pdf) found 73% of adults in England and Wales support the proposals in the Bill. Only 13% did not think the Bill should become law, with 13% undecided.
Despite widespread opposition from religious groups, the majority of religious adherents also support a change in the law on assisted dying.
According to other poll, 72% of Anglicans think people with incurable diseases should have the right to ask close friends or relatives to help them commit suicide, without fear of risking prosecution. Despite this, the Church of England has made clear its opposition to any change in the law, or medical practice, to make assisted suicide permissible or acceptable.
Describing assisted dying as "crude", the Church says "suffering must be met with compassion, commitment to high-quality services and effective medication". The Church's bishops are expected to oppose the Bill in the House of Lords.
56% of Catholics also support a change in the law despite Roman Catholic leaders being particularly vocal against assisted dying.
The Bill enjoys cross party support.
Liberal Democrat Peer and NSS honorary associate Lord Avebury, said: "This Bill can save a small but significant group of terminally ill patients from an agonising death. There is no way it could be misused, or that its rigorous safeguards would allow its limited purposes to be widened".
Crossbench Peer Baroness Murphy – another NSS honorary associate, said: "As a doctor, the relief of suffering at the end of life and respecting dying patients' individual sustained wishes about their own care take precedence. I welcome this Bill as an opportunity to clarify a difficult and complex area of current law and allow patients who are terminally ill to make real choices about life's end."
Conservative Peer Lord Dobbs said: "The right to life that we all enjoy should also provide the right to a dignified death wherever possible. So long as appropriate and rigorous safeguards are in place, I want to see that right to a dignified death established in law."
NSS President, Terry Sanderson, commented: "On assisted dying, as with same sex marriage, the Church of England is at considerable odds with the country's Anglicans, and even more with the population as a whole. Yet it seeks to justify its establishment, and the anachronistic privilege of its bishops in the House of Lords, on the grounds that it speaks for everyone. This is a self-serving delusion. Its bishops should not only abstain from voting on this issue but consider very carefully before advising peers to oppose the Bill."
Those supporting a change to the law are asked to make their voice heard by emailing party leaders.
Also see: Terry Sanderson: The choice of when to die should be that of the individual – not religious leaders
Christian charity launches booklet "equipping Christians to take action against assisted suicide"
Posted: Wed, 4 Jun 2014 16:34
A Christian charity has launched a booklet aimed at equipping Christians with arguments against euthanasia and assisted suicide so that they can take action ahead of expected renewed attempts to change the law across Britain.
The booklet, authored by Chief Executive of the Christian Medical Fellowship, Dr Peter Saunders (right), was produced by Christian Action Research and Education (CARE), a Christian charity seeking to provide "resources and helping to bring Christian insight and experience to matters of public policy and practical caring initiatives".
Its publication comes as part of CARE's 'Live and Let Live' campaign launched last month which seeks to "inform and equip Christians to take action on issues relating to the end of life" and "explore and understand the Biblical view of assisted suicide and euthanasia". CARE says that the idea of the campaign is to equip and inform Christians to take action on the issue of assisted suicide.
The booklet outlines what the Bible says about end-of-life issues, stressing that there is "no provision in scripture for compassionate killing". In what might be taken as menacing in tone, the author notes that "for those who do not know God, neither euthanasia nor assisted suicide are 'merciful release'". The booklet also provides other "powerful arguments" against assisted suicide, arguing that any change in the law to allow assisted suicide would place pressure on vulnerable people, and that the current law against the practice acts as a strong deterrent against abuse.
The booklet has been launched ahead of renewed attempts to change the law in Britain, with Lord Falconer's assisted dying bill expected to be re-tabled in the new Parliamentary session. If passed, the bill would mean that a person who is terminally ill may request and lawfully be provided with assistance to end his or her own life.
Last week, Dignity in Dying launched a new campaign encouraging people to email the main party leaders showing their support for Lord Falconer's bill.
The Scottish Parliament is currently considering similar legislation conceived originally by the late independent MSP Margo MacDonald who died from Parkinson's disease in April. 'The My Life, My Death, My Choice' campaign presented a petition this week to Holyrood signed by 2,500 people urging MSPs to pass the Assisted Suicide (Scotland) Bill.
Keith Porteous Wood, executive director of the National Secular Society, commented: "Once more the Christian lobby is seeking to impose its bible-based objections to deny, under any circumstances, choice to the majority, including many Christians, who wish to avoid the unnecessary indignity of a drawn out death."
