A right to assisted death

Nick Watson The Politics Show West Midlands

It's my decision - God gave it to me Noel Martin

You can read some of your comments on the programme here...

A Birmingham man who insists that it is his right to die when he chooses, is going to Switzerland to see through his plans because "assisted death" is still illegal in the UK. We open up the debate.

Noel Martin is determined his 48th birthday next month will be his last.

He has set 23 July as the day on which his life will end.

A former plasterer from Edgbaston in Birmingham, Noel was left with severe spinal injuries after an attack by a gang of racist thugs while he was working in Mahlow, Germany, 11 years ago.

Now he is determined he will die at a Swiss clinic at a time and in a manner of his choosing.

He has had to travel because it would be illegal for doctors to help him die in this country.

Existance

"You're not living, you're existing because in order to live you have to be able to feel," explained Mr Martin.

And on the question of assisted dying, he is clear. "It's my decision - God gave it to me."

In Holland, Switzerland, Belgium and the American state of Oregon, people with terminal illnesses are already allowed to die.

Cross-bench Peer Lord Joffe's bill, Assisted Dying for the Terminally Ill, aims to introduce a similar law in the UK.

Some terminally-ill patients suffer terrible deaths and the bill is all about preventing unnecessary suffering Lord Joffe

The Swiss have allowed so-called mercy killings since 1941. Holland, since 2000 and Belgium, since 2002.

The Oregon experience

But it is the Oregon law, where euthanasia has been practised since 1997, which provides the model for Lord Joffe's bill.

His bill imposes strict controls: the patient would have to be a competent adult in the late stages of a terminal illness or with a serious incurable condition.

Their written request would have to be witnessed by a solicitor and the diagnosis confirmed by two doctors, one of them a consultant.

Launching the bill in 2005, Lord Joffe told the BBC: "I feel very strongly about assisted dying. It seems to me to be a human right to make a decision in relation not only to how you run your life, but how and when you die.

"Some terminally-ill patients suffer terrible deaths and the bill is all about preventing unnecessary suffering."

Gift from God

[Life] - a gift from God that we cannot treat as a possession of our own Dr Rowan Williams

The latest development is an opinion poll in the health magazine Pulse.

It suggests 42% of GPs would help terminally-ill patients to die, if there was to be a change in the law. The survey also suggests the move would command overwhelming support among the public as a whole.

Critics of the proposals include the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, who has written that life is "a gift from God that we cannot treat as a possession of our own to keep or throw away".

His view is supported by the Bishop of Hereford, Anthony Priddis, who joins our Political Editor, Patrick Burns live this Sunday to discuss the issues raised by Lord Joffe's bill.

EXPRESS YOUR OPINION ON ASSISTED DYING IN THE ONLINE VOTE BELOW...

Also in the programme...

Plans to alter the services at Birmingham's City Hospital are in danger of turning into a race row.

A row over ethnicity just may boil over

What had originally been a fairly straightforward debate about reorganising services in the hospital's accident & emergency and children's departments has ended up being referred to the Commission for Racial Equality for investigation.

The reason? City Hospital Supporters Group claims moving children's and emergency surgery beds from City to Sandwell hospitals will hit deprived patients from ethnic backgrounds disproportionately.

Equal access

Dr Ken Taylor, spokesman for the Supporters Group, said: "These plans threaten services for the population served by City Hospital and conflicts with the trust's Race Equality Scheme.

"The policy states: 'all members of our community must have equal access to services regardless of race', and it will assess any policy that has an adverse impact on the promotion of race equality.

"If the trust was to implement its plans, we would argue that it is treating City Hospital patients, who have a different ethnic balance to Sandwell, in a different way," said Dr Taylor.

Our reporter Joan Cummins has been taking the political temperature in this hospital services row with a twist.

The Politics Show

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Join the Politics Show team... Sunday 03 June 2007 at 12:00 BST on BBC One.

If you have an issue you would like us to follow up then please write to Nick Watson, BBC Politics Show Midlands, The Mailbox, Birmingham, B1 1RF or email [e-mail]

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