Vote on whether to allow assisted dying on Friday
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Speaking in advance of the vote in Parliament on whether to allow assisted dying on Friday, Roger said:
"The issue of ‘assisted dying’ is an extremely contentious one and there are deeply held views on both sides of the argument. For some the argument is a moral one in that deliberately ending a human life is wrong because life is sacred. There is also understandable concern that doctor assisted dying is a first step on a slippery slope where the vulnerable could be threatened and where premature death becomes a cheap alternative to palliative care.
"For others it is about the right of an individual to choose whether to end their life or to suffer unbearable pain, misery and suffering.
"My own view, on balance, is that an individual should have the right to choose providing proper safeguards are built in and individual doctors are not obliged to participate in something which they have moral and ethical objections to. In the state of Oregon in America they have had a law, since 1997, called the ‘Death with Dignity Act’. It allows (but does not oblige) doctors to prescribe lethal doses to patients with less than six months to live who asked for them. A second doctor has to agree that the patient has less than six months to live and there is also a cooling off period of 15 days.
"The Bill being proposed by Rob Marris is similar to the ‘Death with Dignity Act’ in Oregon and it has the additional safeguard that the medical assessment of the two doctors has to be verified and checked by a Judge. I think this is sensible.
"I will, of course, listen to the arguments being made both for and against the Bill but my inclinations are to support the Bill because I believe in the right of an individual to end their life and not to have to endure suffering in the final months of their life."
