We are now in the same situation regarding euthanasia as we were regarding abortion before the 1967 Abortion Act. Legalised euthanasia is coming to Britain unless we obstruct the 'Mental Incapacity Bill'.

In Pope John Paul II’s words in Evangelium Vitae 65: "For a correct moral judgment on euthanasia, in the first place a clear definition is required. Euthanasia in the strict sense is understood to be an action or omission [my italics] which of itself and by intention causes death, with the purpose of eliminating all suffering.".

The government on the other hand have misdefined euthanasia to be restricted to "a deliberate intervention undertaken with the express intention of ending a life.". This does not include a deliberate ommission.

From this stance, the government's Mental Incapacity Bill is before Parliament which applies to any adult who is mentally incapacitated and will therefore affect every single person in this country, because everyone is vulnerable to accidents or illnesses that may cause mental incapacity. The bill’s radical proposals include using a system of living wills and unqualified, unaccountable attorneys to force doctors to kill by withdrawing life-sustaining treatment and care. If passed, the Bill will be the first comprehensive law in the world allowing euthanasia by neglect and may become a model for all common-law countries.

More about the proposals within the Bill can be read on SPUC's website by clicking here. I urge you to read this information to understand the specific danger of the Bill. However a summary of the effects of the Bill include:

• Allow euthanasia by neglect including withdrawal of food and fluids with the aim of ending a person's life.
• Make advance decisions legally binding, including those with a suicidal intent.
• Prioritise subjective, non-clinical considerations such as assumed "wishes and feelings" at the expense of the patient's clinical best interests - i.e. health.
• Establish a "Court of Protection" that may well ensure that the most vulnerable people are not protected from euthanasia by neglect.
• Establish that persons exercising "Lasting Powers of Attorney" can order doctors to kill vulnerable people through euthanasia by neglect - e.g. the withholding or withdrawal of tube-delivered food and fluid.

You can help obstruct this Bill by writing a letter to the Leader of the House of Commons - Rt Hon Peter Hain, and to your local MP:

House of Commons,
London
SW1A 0AA.

For further information or comments please contact info@ourladysbryn.org.uk