Campaigners target MPs on assisted dying

Paul Carter

MPs have been urged to sign up to a new charter asking them to help ensure that assisted suicide remains illegal, as part of a major new campaign.

Not Dead Yet UK’s Resistance campaign, launched in Westminster, is seeking the support of MPs to maintain the current legal protection and resist attempts from pro-euthanasia campaigners to legalise assisted dying.

Baroness [Jane] Campbell, convenor of Not Dead Yet UK, said that the campaign had been launched in response to the “growing onslaught” among the mainstream media of negative portrayals of the quality of life of disabled people and those with life-limiting conditions.

She said: “We felt a cloud of value judgement about people whose disabilities are quite severe or at the end of life”.

“We decided that we’ve got to be more visible, we’ve got to be more vocal and we’ve got to be more active in getting British society to see that there’s another side to this argument. A side that says, ‘actually, we don’t want the law to change’.”

As well as the charter, which will be sent to all 650 MPs, the campaign includes an online petition, and a new DVD funded by Care Not Killing that details personal stories of disabled people arguing for the right to life.

Baroness Campbell said that the campaign was specifically targeting MPs as they hold the key to passing or defeating any new legislation.

“We want to say [to MPs], sign our charter, look at our website, and know that we want assistance to live, and not to die.”

“This is one of our most important ever campaigns, because it is, literally, a matter of life or death,” she said.

The Resistance Campaign website can be found at theresistancecampaign.org.u