DIGNITAS comment on the British House of Commons’ rejection of the Assisted Dying Bill
11 September 2015
The British Lower Chamber, the House of Commons, held an extensive debate on the Assisted Dying Bill introduced by Rob Marris. The proposed Bill was rejected by 330 against 118 votes.
Minutes of the debate in the House of Commons (PDF)
Dignitas is very disappointed that UK residents are still forced to travel to Dignitas. The 330 MPs who voted against the Assisted Dying Bill should be ashamed for their disgraceful ignorance towards the clear public opinion which is pro-choice in ‘last matters’, and even more so for forcing the people who elect them and pay taxes for them to go abroad when all they want is to have the basic human right of a self-determined, accompanied by loved ones and safe end of suffering.
Clearly, these 330 MPs do not respect what the European Court of Human Rights has ruled on January 20th, 2011 (application no. 31322/07, judgement Haas, paragraph 51):
‘In the light of this jurisdiction, the Court finds that the right of an individual to decide how and when to end his life, provided that said individual was in a position to make up his own mind in that respect and to take the appropriate action, was one aspect of the right to respect for private life under Article 8 of the Convention‘
Dignitas sends a big Thank You to all of the 118 MPs who supported the Assisted Dying Bill. They show that there is humanism and there is hope to one day pass a Bill which will give people the freedom of choice they have been asking for decades.
The main aim of Dignitas is to disappear; for this, since 1998, Dignitas works for the worldwide implementation of ‘the last human right’ – which is free choice in end-of-life options and therefore includes access to an accompanied suicide. As soon as the UK and further countries implement what is sensible and humane – which is the Swiss thirty year practice in combining palliative care, suicide attempt prevention, advance directives and the right to choose in life and at life’s end – nobody from the UK or anywhere else will have to travel to Dignitas anymore and thus Dignitas will and can close down.
