BHA Chief Executive Andrew Copson was called to give evidence to the Commission on Assisted Dying, an independent body set up to investigate what system, if any, should exist to allow people to be assisted to die and whether it might be possible to introduce sufficient safeguards within such a system to prevent abuse and ensure that vulnerable people could not be pressured to choose an assisted death.
The Commissioners, a panel from different backgrounds and perspectives with relevant expertise to bring to the issue, asked Mr Copson a number of questions and covering a range of topics, from the ethical basis of the BHA’s position, to what safeguarding measures the organisation would recommend alongside legalisation of assisted dying.
Mr Copson outlined the history of the BHA and the BHA’s extensive commitment to promoting humanist ethics, and particularly about the BHA’s longstanding support for legalisation of assisted dying for those who wish it, for terminally ill people and people who are incurably suffering, and who are physically unable to end their own lives. Mr Copson said that the BHA’s position was framed by two key principles, those of human dignity and of freedom to choose, and asserted that to help another who cannot help themselves is the moral thing to do, and that principle applies to assisted dying.
Mr Copson said that he did not believe that reforms to make lawful assisted dying would ‘devalue’ life more generally and nor would it put vulnerable people at risk. Mr Copson said, ‘What is at issue is compassion, and a change in the law would make for a more compassionate society not a less compassionate one.’ He also said a legalisation would bring more openness, honesty and transparency to the issue.
Notes
For further comment or information, contact Andrew Copson at andrew@humanists.uk or on 020 3675 0959
Read about the BHA’s position on Assisted Dying
View the Commission on Assisted Dying’s website
The British Humanist Association is the national charity representing and supporting the interests of ethically concerned, non-religious people in the UK. It is the largest organisation in the UK campaigning for an end to religious privilege and to discrimination based on religion or belief, and for a secular state