Skip to main content

'We believe in the sanctity of life, not in the sanctity of suffering'

CAMPAIGNERS on both sides of the assisted dying debate outlined their reasons and answered islanders' questions at a max-capacity presentation at Les Cotils.

Pic by Adrian Miller 01-05-18   .Les Cotils .Assisted Dying meeting.Dr Richard Scheffer. (21349540)
Pic by Adrian Miller 01-05-18 .Les Cotils .Assisted Dying meeting.Dr Richard Scheffer. (21349540) / Guernsey Press

Hundreds of islanders attended the presentation, which brought together speakers for and against the proposition.

The evening was organised by Deputy Andrea Dudley-Owen in response to a requete led by Deputy Gavin St Pier, which calls for assisted dying to be introduced in principle in Guernsey.

Dr Richard Scheffer was a hospice medical director and consultant in palliative medicine in the UK for 20 years before retiring.

In his experience there were cases where no amount of care could relieve a patient's suffering. He said there were safeguards that could be put in place to protect vulnerable people and avoid the 'slippery slope' that some expressed fears about.

'We are talking about real suffering and that cannot and should not be ignored because of potential risks that are not shown to happen elsewhere,' he said, citing Oregon, where assisting dying was introduced over two decades ago.

However, Robert Preston, director of think tank and research organisation Living and Dying Well, argued the arguments for assisted dying were premised on an ideal scenario in which all applicants are of sound mind to make the decision and where all doctors know their patients.

There were also instances at Oregon where people went through the process not because of clinical physical illness, but because of mental illnesses such as clinical depression, anorexia nervosa and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.

Dr Carol Davis, consultant in palliative medicine and clinical end of life care lead at University Hospital Southampton, said that in 25 years in her profession, only one patient had given assisted dying serious consideration. Constant developments in her field mean some illnesses that were once considered terminal can now be treated, making a prognosis of clinical illness - a pre-requisite of assisted dying - 'harder than ever before'.

'New medicines are developing all the time and it is very tricky to be anything like accurate in predicting how long someone has to live,' she said.

Rabbi Jonathan Romain, a minister at Maidenhead Synagogue and founder of Inter-faith leaders for Dignity in Dying, said assisted dying was not at odds with his faith.

'Why should other people be able to prevent you from making that choice about their life? We still believe in the sanctity of life, that does not mean we believe in the sanctity of suffering.'

You need to be logged in to comment. If you had an account on our previous site, you can migrate your old account and comment profile to this site by visiting this page and entering the email address for your old account. We'll then send you an email with a link to follow to complete the process.