Society

Frances Ryan is right to draw attention to the fact that recent governments have broken down the unique opportunity of the Sure Start projects, set up under the Blair/Brown governments, to pioneer policies and practices that brought significant benefits to children (Reviving Sure Start highlights austerity’s trail of destruction, Journal, 11 November). Not only did they blaze a trail, as Ryan so brilliantly describes, but they also opened up the possibility of providing opportunities for early years practitioners to counter children’s learning of negative attitudes and behaviour towards people who are different from them – including those of different gender, skin colour, ethnicity, sexual orientation and religion. Recent evidence shows that discrimination, prejudice, abuse and hatred are increasing in our society. Research evidence over decades also shows that children learn their attitudes to differences between people long before they go to school. So the work that … [Read more...] about Reviving Sure Start and investing in children is vital for society

With other faith leaders, I have joined in writing to members of parliament, urging them to oppose Rob Marris’s assisted dying bill. We have written, not in an attempt to push “the religious” viewpoint on others but because we are concerned that a change in the current law on assisted suicide would have detrimental effects both on individuals and on our society. While some individual religious voices, including that of my distinguished predecessor, Lord Carey, have called for a change in the law, the faith leaders’ letter represents the considered opinion of our communities that have analysed, discussed and debated the issue over many years. Their response springs from philosophical and theological reflections as well as from a vast range of pastoral experience and a profound sense of compassion. I have three concerns: First, a change in the law to permit assisted suicide would cross a fundamental legal and ethical Rubicon. This respect for the lives of others … [Read more...] about Why I believe assisting people to die would dehumanise our society for ever

Britain will cross a “legal and ethical Rubicon” if parliament votes to permit terminally ill patients to end their lives, said the archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, as leaders of all the UK’s major faith groups call on MPs to reject plans to allow assisted suicide. In an extraordinary show of unity on Sunday, the heads of Britain’s Christian, Jewish, Muslim and Sikh communities wrote a joint letter to every MP – published in the Observer – urging them to throw out the assisted dying bill, which will be debated in the Commons on Friday. The private member’s bill would allow patients judged as having no more than six months to live, and who had a “clear and settled intention” to end their lives, to be prescribed a lethal dose of drugs. Two doctors and a family court judge would have to assess the patient’s diagnosis and prognosis, and check that he or she was mentally competent to make a judgment, free of coercion. The … [Read more...] about Welby urges MPs: reject right-to-die bill that ‘crosses the Rubicon’

The House of Lords was split on Friday night over whether to back assisted dying, as supporters argued it would end the excruciating suffering of the terminally ill and opponents warned it was "a whisker away" from euthanasia. The assisted dying bill, proposed by the former lord chancellor Charles Falconer, would allow doctors to prescribe a lethal dose to patients judged to have less than six months to live. By the end of an emotionally fraught 10-hour debate, about 65 peers had spoken in favour of the legislation and 62 against. There was no consensus among the professions, with doctors, senior lawyers, police chiefs, politicians and the clergy speaking on each side. The bill's supporters included former police commissioner Ian Blair; former BBC chief John Birt; former director-general of Age Concern, Sally Greengross; former archbishop of Canterbury George Carey; and Elaine Murphy, a professor of old age psychiatry. Many of them raised the rights of individuals to choose their own … [Read more...] about House of Lords debate evenly split over assisted dying legislation

As MPs and peers we write further to the views expressed by Tanni-Grey Thompson, who argues that the assisted dying bill is unsafe (We must reject this intentional killing bill, 9 September). As the debate on assisted suicide intensifies, there is a real risk that the voice of the most vulnerable in our society is being drowned out. Evidence from around the world shows that many who chose assisted suicide cited feeling a burden on those around them as a reason for proceeding. In Oregon and Washington, which allow doctor-assisted suicide, many of those who ended their lives felt a burden on family, friends, or caregivers. Washington state’s 2014 Death with Dignity Act report recorded that 59% of those who died under the legislation self-identified as feeling a burden. In Oregon it was 40%. People who feel a burden are among the most vulnerable in society and often need encouragement to live. At a time when assistance to those with disabilities is being cut due to austerity … [Read more...] about Assisted dying bill raises hopes and fears for end-of-life care