British court allows euthanasia case to continue

A British judge on Monday ruled that the case of a severely disabled man who wants to be euthanized by a doctor should be allowed to proceed. The Ministry of Justice argued that granting the man's request would require changing the law on murder and that such changes must be made by Parliament.

The man, who is not terminally ill, is arguing euthanasia should be legal based upon the European Convention of Human Rights.

The director of the Catholic Church-affiliated Anscombe Bioethics Centre, Dr David Albert Jones, is perplexed by the court decision.

“In Parliament and in the law courts, so far, the case against euthanasia is quite strong, and among doctors – particularly palliative-care doctors – the case against euthanasia is quite strong,” he said. He added this is despite how the issue is portrayed in the media.

“I think within the media there is a huge amount of sympathy for the case for euthanasia,” he said.

“The case for the other side tends to be made particularly by doctors and by some people in the disability-rights movement,” Dr. Jones told Vatican Radio. “If we haven’t got euthanasia so far in this country, its largely because we have a very active disability-rights movement which is very concerned about euthanasia.”

Many disabled people worry the pro-euthanasia movement puts less value on their lives, and their voices are not being heard.

“They do make the case that they don’t have as much air-time, they don’t have as much sympathy with the media, as the lobby in favour of euthanasia,” Dr. Jones said. “The pro-euthanasia lobby, though its quite small, is very well-organized, it’s quite well-funded, and it has a great deal of sympathy in the media. Unfortunately, the real weight of the arguments might be on one side, but the arguments that people hear tend to be arguments only from the other side.”


Listen to the full interview by Charles Collins with Dr David Albert Jones: