Former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has warned that passing a bill to allow assisted suicide would “undermine the sanctity of life” and would ultimately lead to a slippery slope in which the frail are put under pressure to end their lives.
Brown, 70, joined the Chief Rabbi, the Archbishop of Canterbury and the most senior Roman Catholic cardinal in Britain in opposing the private member’s bill, which will be debated for a second time in the House of Lords.
In a piece published in The Times, Brown, who served as Prime Minister from 2007 to 2010, expressed his thoughts on the issue. He said that the focus of the medical profession should be on alleviating the suffering of patients, and that the “cold, bureaucratic directives” of the bill could negatively change our perception of doctors and nurses, who are supposed to care for their patients and work to preserve life.
He also wrote that lawmakers have to consider whether those who are dying could be better served by enhancing existing forms of care.
“I believe that when we analyse this, we will conclude that the bill to legalise assisted dying gets the balance wrong between individual autonomy and the sanctity of life.”
He added: “When I think of the kind of care my wife, Sarah, and I saw at first hand when we did some voluntary work in our local hospice, and the compassionate way that sensitive doctoring and nursing responded to individual wishes without undermining the sanctity of life, I am sure that there is such a thing as a dignified death.”
Brown continued: “If death were to become not just an option but something close to an entitlement through the bureaucratic processes that an act of parliament’s provisions impose, we would, in my view, be altering fundamentally the way we think about mortality.
“The risk of pressures, however subtle and indirect, on the frail and the vulnerable, who may feel their existence burdensome to others, cannot ever be entirely excluded. And the inevitable erosion of trust in the caring professions – if they were in a position to end life – would be to lose something very precious.”
He concluded: “while the end result may not be called assisted dying on demand, harm will be caused. Better to provide palliative care that we know is caring and loving and will make possible a good death.”
His comments come as one U.K. family have pleaded with lawmakers and the public not to legalise assisted suicide, after their relative was poisoned for his estate. The brother of Peter Faraquhar, a teacher who was murdered after altering his will, warns that a new law would put others at risk of the same tragic fate.
Peter Farquhar was slowly poisoned by Ben Field, who had tricked him into believing he was ill before coercing him into changing his will to leave him his home in Maids Moreton, Buckinghamshire. His murder went unnoticed until police launched an enquiry after another woman in the same village also died.
Field, who is now serving a life sentence, even attended Mr Farquhar’s funeral and gave a tribute. Ian Farquhar, the victim’s heartbroken brother, recently penned a letter to all MPs and peers urging them not to support the new Assisted dying Bill.
In the letter Ian Farquhar and his wife Sue wrote:
“We are ordinary people whose lives were dramatically changed in 2014 when we were plunged into an all too public nightmare.”
They recalled how Field had “entwined himself into Peter’s life, even moving himself into his house”, adding: “There he set about gaslighting and slowly poisoning Peter into a belief that he was dying from an unexplainable disease.
“We attended doctor’s meetings with Peter as they became convinced Peter was suffering from a real and dangerous condition. They prescribed all manner of drugs and treatments – all the while missing what was truly going on.”
“Our fear,” they wrote, “is that assisted suicide could increase instances of fraud of the elderly and sick.
“We fear that these proposals would mean that many vulnerable and elderly people would be put at risk of a fate like our brother’s. With a state sanctioned way of bringing about the death of the elderly and unwell, inheritance fraudsters would be able to take advantage of the vulnerable without fear of consequences.”
Boris Johnson and Health Secretary Sajid Javid are both understood to be opposed to any change to the assisted suicide law.