Petition against assisted suicide

Anthony Bennett has organised a petition to the Prime Minister which reads:
We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to retain the law that makes it a criminal offence to assist another person to commit suicide.
Further details:
The law currently makes it a criminal offence to assist another person to commit suicide. There has been a stream of media stories about British people travelling to Dignitas in Switzerland to be killed because they wish to end their lives. These are all very tragic stories. However, it is important to note that in recent years no-one in Britain has been prosecuted for taking their relatives to Switzerland to die, nor in respect of other cases of assisted suicide in the U.K.

But to decriminalise assisted suicide would - as many commentators have observed - make many elderly people vulnerable to relatives who may have ulterior motives for wishing them to die early.

The law as it is acts as a deterrent to those wishing to assist a relative to die early. There is therefore a very strong case NOT to change the law, despite the increasing clamour in some quarters for assisted suicide to be made legal.
Sign the petition

(Deadline 29 July 2010. You have to be a British citizen or resident to sign.)

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