Lord Anthony Lester, member of the House of Lords, writes in The Independent:
Like many others, I believe that we need a legal framework which would allow doctors and nurses to be able lawfully to treat terminally ill patients to relieve their suffering as well as pain, even though it would be a virtual certainty that the treatment would shorten their lives . . .
There is a much more limited reform now available which would remove the present uncertainty and the fear of prosecution from those who accompany their loved ones to Switzerland to support them in their agonising decision to end their life. Lord Falconer, the former Lord Chancellor, seeks to amend the Coroners and Justice Bill to create a defence to a charge of encouraging or assisting suicide for someone who accompanies a terminally ill person to travel overseas for an assisted death.
Via John Smeaton, president of the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children.
