Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
FIRST BRITISH SUICIDE CLINIC
‘Step closer’ to making it legal in rest of the UK Channel Island is set to pass assisted dying law
GUERNSEY is set to become the first place in the British Isles to have a suicide clinic.
Politicians on the Channel Island are expected to vote in May to pass laws to allow assisted dying. It could put pressure on Westminster to follow.
TERMINALLY ill people who need help to end their life must travel to Switzerland to do it legally, but that could be about to change.
The parliament in Guernsey is set to vote in May on a proposal to decriminalise assisted suicide.
Sources say the plan is expected to be given the go-ahead.
Guernsey would become the first part of the British Isles to approve the controversial practice.
People from the UK could travel to the Channel Island to receive help to commit suicide. The new law may also put pressure on the Westminster parliament to change UK laws.
Guernsey’s top politician Gavin St Pier is backing the proposal to allow assisted dying of terminally ill adults who are mentally competent and have been given six months or less to live.
The Chief Minister said: “This is about giving people choice and a sense that they have some control them- selves, rather than being frightened, out of control and in the hands of others. That for me is why it is such an important issue.”
He added: “I have personal experience of my father who died nine years ago. His death from cardiovascular disease was very distressing... It was not the death he would have chosen had he had the choice.” The cost of the suicide procedure for Guernsey residents could be covered by the island’s health service. If plans are passed it is likely there would be an 18-month consultation to draw up the framework for the new law. Considerations would include whether the person needs to perform the final act themselves – by, for example, taking lethal drugs – or whether others could assist them.
Measures to protect the vulnerable and prevent abuse of the legislation would be at the forefront of the plans.
Some Guernsey campaigners believe the proposals should be limited to people from the Channel Islands.
Guernsey – where locals hold British passports – is not part of the UK. It is a British Crown Dependency and is able to set its own laws.
But the Privy Council at Westminster has the power to block legislation.
However, initial talks suggest this would not happen in this case, meaning the law would get the Royal Assent it needs.
The Privy Council would discuss the implications for the UK. Some see this as a step closer to bringing the laws to mainland Britain.
Assisting a suicide carries a maximum sentence of 14 years.
Every eight days someone from Britain travels to Switzerland for an assisted death.
It is the only country that accepts foreign nationals to take their own life in this way.
The average cost for a British person going to the Dignitas organisation near Zurich for an assisted suicide is about £10,000.
A poll by campaign group Dignity in Dying found in 2015 that 82% of the British public were in favour of legalising assisted dying.
Those pushing for a law change here include Noel Conway, 68, of Shrewsbury, who has a form of motor neurone disease and is fighting for the right to a “peaceful” death in Britain.
Craig Ewert, 59, who also had motor neurone disease, was filmed for a documentary as he died in 2006 at Dignitas. It was the first time a suicide was shown on British TV.
The dad of two, of Harrogate, North Yorks, said he did not want to spend the rest of his days in a “living tomb”.
Assisted suicide is also legal in Canada and US states such as Oregon.