PARLIAMENTARY EARLY DAY MOTION
ASSISTED DYING IN THE UK AND OVERSEAS (28 March 2006)

leave out from `of' to end and insert `Dr Ann Turner and regrets the manner in which her assisted suicide in Switzerland was politicised by the euthanasia lobby to promote the legalisation of euthanasia; notes that what was described in The Times as as a `grisly travelling theatre of death' for which a television team and other journalists were present throughout has been used relentlessly by the Voluntary Euthanasia Society to promote Lord Joffe's Bill to legalise assisted suicide; notes however that Dr Turner was not terminally ill and would not have qualified under the proposed legislation which requires a prognosis of death within six months whereas Dr Turner had six to eight years to live; further notes that she was diagnosed as having progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP) in 2004 for which the average survival is 10 years; further notes that the clinical course of PSP is not unlike Parkinson's disease and, although not curable, treatment is available that considerably improves the quality of life; hopes the authorities treated Dr Turner's son and daughters who accompanied her with compassion; nonetheless reminds the Government that every Disability Rights group in the UK is opposed to the Joffe Bill and any form of euthanasia because they consider it would totally undermine the basic rights of disabled people; and calls on the Government to invest extensively in research into PSP and similar diseases, to finance major extensions to the hospice movement and to oppose euthanasia.'.

Sponsored by:
Dr Brian Iddon (Labour)