Death With Dignity: Assisted Dying Will Be Legal In UK In Two Years, Head Of British Medical Association Predicts

Assisted dying will be legal in the UK within two years, the head of the British Medical Association predicted.

Dr. Kailash Chand has supported a private member bill that would allow terminally ill people to be helped to end their lives, and said he expects it to pass within two years. The bill is already moving through Parliament, recently getting a unanimous vote and an amendment that would make all applications for assisted death subject to judicial oversight.

Chand said it was clear that assisted death is coming for the UK.

“No change is not an option,” he told the Observer. “The present law definitely needs changing. It discriminates and is very bad law. We currently have a two-tier system – one for the people who have the resources and money to go to the Dignitas clinic in Switzerland and another for the majority of people who don’t have the resources or money.”

The issue of assisted dying has become a hot debate, especially with the recent death of American Brittany Maynard. The 29-year-old woman moved to Oregon to take advantage of the state’s death with dignity law, which allows terminally ill patients to receive life-ending medicine.

Assisted suicide has many detractors, including the Catholic Church. Many in the church have spoken out against Maynard’s decision, and have expressed fears that people could be cajoled into suicide if the laws become widespread.

“Brittany Maynard’s act is in itself reprehensible, but what happened in the consciousness we do not know,” said Monsignor Ignacio Carrasco de Paula.

De Paula, the head of the Pontifical Academy for Life and one of the most outspoken members of the church on bioethical issues, told the AP that suicide violates the inherent right to life for all persons.

“Suicide is not a good thing,” he said. “It is a bad thing because it is saying no to life and to everything it means with respect to our mission in the world and towards those around us.”

But Chand noted that assisted dying has widespread support.

“Look at the surveys,” he said. “Between 60 percent and 70 percent of the public are in favor of a change in the law. Three-quarters of nurses are in favor. Only the doctors’ community is not substantially in favor. But if you ask a doctor a personal question whether, if they were in that sort of situation, would they want it, their answer would be yes.”

Chand said he would also like to shift the debate, referring to it as dying with dignity rather than euthanasia or assisted dying.