‘Scope of law extended in countries first to change’
ASSISTED dying and euthanasia has been changed and expanded in all four countries where it has been legal for more than nine years, the Dean of Guernsey has said.
The Very Rev. Tim Barker, who is acting as chairman of a churches’ working party against assisted dying, was speaking after church leaders and churches from across Guernsey were challenged by a letter sent to the Guernsey Press to outline in which jurisdictions there had been extension of the categories of those eligible for death.
The letter mentioned a number of countries that it said have introduced assisted dying without any erosion of safeguards over time.
John Ogier, coordinating leader of the working party, said of the list of jurisdiction, California, Washington DC, Colorado, Canada and Victoria, in Australia, had only made the change in the last year or two.
The law in these jurisdictions had barely been implemented.
‘Moreover, Montana has no legislation as such and Hawaii’s will not be implemented until next year,’ he said.
That left a smaller group of jurisdictions that it had in view, namely Oregon (assisted suicide introduced in 1997), Belgium (euthanasia introduced in 2002), the Netherlands (euthanasia introduced in 2002), and Washington State (assisted suicide introduced in 2009).
Mr Barker said those arguing for a change in the law should look at the four places where assisted suicide or euthanasia had been legal for some time.
‘Of these, the experience of the Netherlands and Belgium is particularly relevant because only they allow lethal drugs to be administered by someone other than the person who is to die, an arrangement that the requete asks to be considered,’ he said.
‘In all four places, rules and practice have been changed and expanded.
‘In the Netherlands and Belgium, legislation that was only meant to apply to mentally competent terminally ill adults has been extended to include the elderly, disabled people, those with mental health problems and even children and babies.
‘While in Oregon and Washington – Oregon being oft-cited as the ideal model by those seeking to change the law – there has been a widening of conditions deemed eligible for assisted suicide over time, including illnesses that are not obviously terminal.’
The requete, which will go to the States in May, asks the Assembly to agree in principle to the development of a suitable legal regime to permit assisted dying in the island.
The Rev. Alistair Cummings, of the Church of Scotland, said assisted dying/assisted suicide or euthanasia risked putting pressure on vulnerable people to end their life because of real or imagined fears of being a burden.
‘This is why we believe that the safest law is the one we currently have – a law that treats all of us the same, regardless of age, infirmity, illness or disability.’
Churches in Guernsey response
in full Pages 14 & 15
