Assisted Dying

Lord Bishop of Oxford Excerpts

Monday 13th February 2012 Lords Chamber

[Lord Harries of Pentregarth]

The noble Baroness, Lady Jay, referred to the recent commission, which found the present legal status of assisted dying to be “incoherent”, but whenever you try to balance two vital principles, as we are here, the result can appear less clear-cut than if one had one principle alone to take into account. On the one hand, the present law expresses and safeguards the fundamental principle of respect for life—the life of everyone. On the other hand, the guidelines put out by the DPP express the principle of compassion. The present situation gets the balance between law and compassion just about right. In trying to hold these two principles together, I suggest, it is perfectly coherent. Further, when we try to hold two principles together it is important to remember that what we are comparing with the present situation is not some abstract state in which we might have only one principle to uphold. We are comparing it with actual alternatives, and in my judgment the alternatives are more damaging to the public good of this country than the present well-struck balance.