Don't fall for the euthanasia lobby's campaign of spin and hijacks

Sir Michael Caine, the actor, has claimed in an interview that, following his request, a doctor gave his terminally-ill father a lethal overdose. Sir Michael also expressed support for voluntary euthanasia. (Readers might recall that Sir Michael was one of the lead actors in the pro-abortion film "The Cider House Rules".) Peter Saunders, head of the Christian Medical Fellowship (CMF), has an excellent blog-post on Sir Michael's comments, uncovering the spin that the pro-euthanasia lobby put on such media reports.

The Voluntary Euthanasia Society (which has recently tried to whitewash itself by rebranding itself Dignity in Dying), has not only has sought to trade on Sir Michael's comments, but is also now seeking to hijack the medical profession for its pro-death campaign, starting a new group called Healthcare Professionals for Change. Anthony Ozimic, SPUC's communications manager, told the media earlier this week:

“A doctor is obliged by professional ethics and in law to act in their patients’ best clinical interests. For a doctor to kill their patients instead of treating or caring for them cannot be in their patients’ best clinical interests. 200 years ago, Dr Christoph Hufeland, Johann Goethe's doctor, warned that, once a doctor steps outside their vocation to preserve life, he become the most dangerous man in the state. Legalising assisted suicide would turn a class of private citizens into public killers. It would change doctors and nurses from being healers and carers into poisoners and angels of death. Also, making assisted suicide available to patients would lead to pressure on pro-life doctors and nurses to assist suicide, thereby diminishing their autonomy to practice their profession according to their consciences and Hippocratic ethics.”

Comments on this blog? Email them to johnsmeaton@spuc.org.uk
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