Today, Wednesday 2nd April, Cardinal Vincent Nichols, who is the most senior Roman Catholic in England and Wales, has told his congregations to lobby their local MPs against the current Assisted Dying Bill. No surprise there, but the reason he gives is distinctly disingenuous. He says Parliament has not given this important measure sufficient debating… Continue reading Assisted Dying – the pushback continues
Pegasos has helped a British woman to die without her family’s knowledge, despite promising to take steps to ensure this would not happen. The case made a lead item on the ITV news and was covered in the following day’s edition of The Times. The woman was aged 51 and had been living in South… Continue reading Bad PR for Pegasos
Any change in the assisted dying law in England and Wales will not become operational until the autumn of 2029. That is the latest news to come from the Committee Stage of Kim Leadbeater’s Bill. The good news (in fact, the only good news) is that the Bill itself is now emerging from its Committee… Continue reading UK law change – four year delay
There is now a new Voluntary Assisted Dying centre in Switzerland. Its name is Athanasios and it is based in Basel. The website address is www.athanasios.ch. It was launched this week (25th March). Full details will follow on this website as soon as the necessary research and due diligence has been done. Operationally, it will… Continue reading Athanasios – a new centre in Switzerland
Kim Leadbeater’s Bill to legalise assisted dying in England and Wales is making satisfactory progress so far. It is now halfway through its Committee Stage and is on track for its Report Stage on 25th April. There has been only one change so far; the sensible move to replace “a High Court Judge” with a… Continue reading The Assisted Dying Bill – progress so far
The UK Government has now announced how it will set about providing funding for assisted dying if Kim Leadbeater’s current Bill should become law. Serious questions were being raised about whether the financial burden, estimated to be between £25 million and £35 million, should fall upon the NHS or upon the Judiciary. The VAD (Voluntary… Continue reading Assisted dying to be funded “like dentists”
Tom Gordon MP did not press his amendment to a vote at today’s meeting of the Committee for the Assisted Dying Bill. Although a wise decision at the time (the amendment would probably have been lost on a vote), it is nonetheless a disappointment to those who suffer from neurodegenerative illnesses such as Parkinsons, Motor… Continue reading Tom Gordon’s amendment withdrawn
Under a forthcoming amendment to the Assisted Dying Bill, sufferers from Motor Neurone Disease, Parkinson’s and other neurodegenerative disorders could be included. At the moment, the Bill states that patients must be “likely to die within six months”. The presents a problem for sufferers from most neurological sufferers because their illnesses are unlikely to be… Continue reading Hope for MND and Parkinson’s
With the benefit of hindsight, it was always likely that the involvement of a Judge in every single application for an assisted death would have to be removed. There weren’t enough Judges to go round, they didn’t have the training and they would have charged too much. So Kim Leadbeater’s decision to replace them with… Continue reading Goodbye Judges
That’s the trouble with bureaucracy. It creeps up behind you and catches you by surprise. The first you know about it is when tasks that used to take a week or two suddenly can’t be completed in less than four. So it is with funerals. In 2019 the rules, which had been in place for… Continue reading Funerals now delayed to four weeks
