Now Care Minister backs the right to die bill

Now Care Minister backs the right to die bill: As Lords prepare to vote on assisted dying, Norman Lamb says he has changed his mind and would support reforms

The minister in charge of care for the elderly last night dramatically backed a change in the law on assisted dying.

On the eve of a crucial vote in the House of Lords, Norman Lamb said he had changed his mind about current rules and would support controversial reforms to allow assisted dying for the terminally ill with less than six months to live.

Yesterday, the Prime Minister and the leaders of Britain’s major faiths opposed the new legislation. David Cameron told MPs he was ‘not convinced that further steps need to be taken’, warning ‘people might be being pushed into things that they don’t actually want’.

Writing in the Daily Mail today, Baroness Hollins, a former president of the British Medical Association, argues legalising assisted dying risks letting ‘the genie out of the bottle’, normalising suicide and destroying patients’ trust in their doctors.

She writes that the existing legislation has been called ‘a law with a stern face but a kind heart’, adding: ‘We should remember the old saying "If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!’’’

Last week, former Archbishop of Canterbury Lord Carey sent shockwaves through the Church of England by reversing years of opposition to say he supports the idea.

The proposals, put forward by Labour peer Lord Falconer, would allow doctors in England and Wales to administer lethal drugs to patients with less than six months to live who are able make an informed choice.

Two doctors would have to confirm a patient had a ‘settled’ wish to die under the law to be voted on in the House of Lords tomorrow.

Mr Lamb said Lord Carey’s change of heart was ‘hugely significant’ and that he will support reform if it is approved by the Lords and moves on to a Commons vote.

• I thought "Can I really justify the position I have taken in the past?" Increasingly I felt it was untenable,’ the Liberal Democrat health minister told the Daily Mail. He said that with ‘tough safeguards’, the terminally ill should be given help to commit suicide.
• I am very clear now that is what needs to happen. The polling suggests very strong public support for it,’ he added.

• There is a whole range of people who have been through this experience with loved ones and witnessed the pain and every attempt being made to keep someone alive even when they clearly wanted to end their own life.
• I thought George Carey’s intervention was hugely significant. I think it’s instructive, as lots of people actually are re-thinking old assumptions, as I myself have done.
• I have in the past been very opposed. I was concerned about the risk of families exploiting vulnerable relatives. But ultimately the question is whether concerns about some people seeking to exploit the situation should deny others the right to make an informed choice. I don’t think it can.
• The safeguards are clear and I think they are critically important. It’s essential people have confidence we really will test whether this is someone’s own and settled will. But those anxieties shouldn’t deny someone the choice to end their life in a dignified way.’

Mr Lamb stressed he was speaking as an MP, not health minister, as the Government does not take a position on the issue and MPs and peers are free to vote with their consciences.

Vincent Nichols, the Archbishop of Westminster, is among religious leaders said the move would be a 'grave error'

While the British Medical Association is firmly opposed, Mr Lamb insisted there was a ‘mix of views’. ‘I have had clinicians contact me to support the idea of reform,’ he said.

Yesterday, religious leaders said the move would be a ‘grave error’ and result in people ‘colluding’ in the idea that someone seeking an assisted death is of ‘no further value’.

The letter to all peers was signed by the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Rev Justin Welby; Cardinal Vincent Nichols, leader of the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales; and Dr Shuja Shafi, the secretary general of the Muslim Council of Britain, along with 19 other senior figures.

Charities for the elderly and disabled also wrote to peers.

Action on Elder Abuse, the Veterans’ Association, Mencap and Scope wrote: ‘We strongly believe the Bill would seriously undermine our efforts and lead unnecessarily to the deaths of many people whom as a society we should be helping.’

They warned the current crisis in care could make people feel ‘they should "choose" to end a life in which they are suffering’ so they are not ‘a burden on those who love them’.

A ComRes poll for ITV’s Tonight show found the public supports the Bill. Some 70 per cent approved and 12 per cent disagreed. But 47 per cent said it would lead to people opting to die so they were not a burden.

Roch Maher, a 53-year-old from Hounslow, West London, with motor neurone disease, supports reform. ‘I don’t want my children’s last memory of me to be a fading physical wreck who can do little for himself,’ he said.

But Lilly Loch, 57, of Hackney in north-east London, who has scleroderma, a disease that can destroy internal tissues, said: ‘There’s absolutely no way that I would ever want to not have my final time with my family.’

Rabbi Jonathan Romain, the chairman of Inter-Faith Leaders for Dignity in Dying, which backs the law, said: ‘There is nothing holy about agony so I don’t see any point in forcing people to live on against their will.’

Read more: girls bridesmaid dresses | light blue bridesmaid dresses

Life consists not in holding good cards, but in playing well those you hold. keep your friends close,but your enemies closer.