• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • About DNS
  • Subscribe to DNS
  • Advertise with DNS
  • Support DNS
  • Contact DNS

Disability News Service

the country's only news agency specialising in disability issues

  • Home
  • Independent Living
    • Arts, Culture and Sport
    • Crime
    • Education
    • Employment
    • Housing
    • Transport
  • Activism & Campaigning
  • Benefits & Poverty
  • Politics
  • Human Rights
You are here: Home / News Archive / Disabled peer attacks ‘ignorance’ of euthanasia lobby

Disabled peer attacks ‘ignorance’ of euthanasia lobby

By guest on 10th February 2010 Category: News Archive

Listen

A disabled peer has delivered her fiercest attack yet on those pressing for the legalisation of assisted suicide.

Baroness [Jane] Campbell was speaking in the latest Lords debate, in which the Labour peer Lord Warner called for an independent inquiry into a possible change in the law.

The debate came two days after the author Sir Terry Pratchett delivered the annual Richard Dimbleby Lecture on BBC One, in which he called on the government to set up assisted suicide tribunals that could give people legal permission to end their lives.

Lord Warner said “survey after survey for a decade or more” had shown public support for a change in the law and that Parliament “lags behind public opinion on this issue”.

But Baroness Campbell said Sir Terry’s views were “at odds with that of thousands of other terminally-ill and disabled people, who want Parliament to concentrate on better support to live, not to die”.

She said that, although the majority of the population may share his views, Sir Terry “did not speak for disabled and terminally-ill people”.

And she told peers that not one organisation of or for disabled and terminally-ill people supported a change in the law.

Baroness Campbell said the campaign for legalisation was being “waged by people fearful of disability and terminal illness” and mostly by those who were not disabled or terminally-ill themselves.

And she said the “relentless pressing for a change in the law” sent the message to those newly diagnosed that they would not be able to cope or adjust and would “enter a living hell” and “should consider a premature death”.

She added: “The ignorance of that approach astounds me.”

The pro-life crossbench peer Lord Alton said a change in the law would “endanger public safety and put disabled people at risk”, and “the right to die would rapidly become the duty to die”.

Lord Joffe, who has previously introduced his own assisted suicide bill in the Lords, said “the 80 per cent of society in our democracy who consistently support assisted dying” were “entitled” to the inquiry, so the issue could be “calmly and objectively considered, based on research and evidence, rather than on conjecture and speculation about what might happen by those who hope that it will not”.

But Lord Bach, the junior justice minister, said there was “little prospect” of the government setting up an independent inquiry during the final months of this parliament and it had “made clear” that any change to the law was “an issue of individual conscience” for peers and MPs.

4 February 2010

Share this post:

Share on X (Twitter)Share on FacebookShare on WhatsAppShare on RedditShare on LinkedIn
A photograph shows an audience raising their hands in a BSL sign. The words say: 'BSL Conference 2025. The future starts with us. Leeds 17-18 July. Be part of shaping the future of Deaf cultures and identities. Get 10% off with BDA10'

Related

‘Muddled’ blue badge reforms ‘are to blame for renewal delays’
6th February 2015
UN debate will be reminder of true inclusive education
6th February 2015
IDS breaks pledge on PIP waiting-times, as tens of thousands still queue for months
30th January 2015

Primary Sidebar

On the left of the image are multiple heads of different colours - white, aqua, red, light brown, and dark green - all grouped together, then the words ‘Campaign for Disability Justice. Sign up to support. #OpportunitySecurityRespect’
A photograph shows an audience raising their hands in a BSL sign. The words say: 'BSL Conference 2025. The future starts with us. Leeds 17-18 July. Be part of shaping the future of Deaf cultures and identities. Get 10% off with BDA10'

Access

Latest Stories

Disabled MP who quit government over benefit cuts tells DNS: ‘The consequences will be devastating’

Disabled peers plan to ‘amend, amend, amend, amend, amend’ after assisted dying bill reaches Lords

Minister finally admits that working-age benefits spending is stable, despite months of ‘spiralling’ claims

This bill opens the door to scandal, abuse and injustice, disabled activists say after assisted dying bill vote

Timms says cuts must go ahead, despite being reminded of risk that disabled claimants could die

Absence of disabled people’s voices from assisted dying bill has been ‘astonishing’, says disabled MP

Timms misleads MPs on DWP transparency and cover-ups, as he gives evidence on PIP review

Ministers are considering further extension to disability hate crime laws, after pledge on ‘aggravated’ offences

Making all self-driving pilot schemes accessible would be ‘counter-productive’ and slow us down, says minister

Involve disabled people ‘meaningfully’ from the start when developing digital assistive tech, says report

Advice and Information

Readspeaker
A photograph shows an audience raising their hands in a BSL sign. The words say: 'BSL Conference 2025. The future starts with us. Leeds 17-18 July. Be part of shaping the future of Deaf cultures and identities. Get 10% off with BDA10'

Footer

The International Standard Serial Number for Disability News Service is: ISSN 2398-8924

  • Accessibility Statement
  • Privacy Policy
  • Site map
  • Bluesky
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Threads
  • Twitter

Copyright © 2025 Disability News Service

Site development by A Bright Clear Web