Daily Mail, UK - Eighty prominent public figures today call for the legalisation of assisted dying, warning that one Briton travels abroad each fortnight to end their own life.
Lord Carey, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, author Ian McEwan, actress Zoe Wanamaker and a number of doctors tell political leaders that refusal to debate the issue in Parliament is ‘heartless’.
They have signed a letter saying that all parties must commit to completing a process that would allow terminally ill people to take their own lives.
The call for action follows the tabling of a bill by Lord Falconer, the former Lord Chancellor.
This would permit doctors to prescribe fatal drug doses to patients who had no more than six months to live and had a ‘clear and settled intention’ to end their lives.
Under current law, helping someone to take their own life could carry a jail sentence of up to 14 years.
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