In the past two weeks, the legalisation of Assisted Suicide has been aggressively pursued by pro-Euthanasia lobby groups, despite the UK Parliament rejecting its legalisation in October 2009.
Here are some ways that you can act to help stop Assisted Suicide being made available in the UK via the backdoor.
Flood the BBC with complaints on biased and distorted coverage on Assisted Suicide.
The BBC has been accused of bias, having given hours of airtime and leading news bulletins to the opinions of campaigners in favour of legalising assisted suicide and by publishing the results of opinion polls in a selective way.
The Daily Mail comment said “anybody listening to the BBC yesterday could be forgiven for thinking this is a debate with only one side.”
The recent Panorama programme ‘I helped my daughter die’ featured Mrs Kay Gilderdale, recently cleared of attempted murder after administering morphine and other drugs to her fourteen year old daughter. The programme portrayed Mrs Gilderdale's actions in a wholly positive, unquestioning light, without giving fair coverage to the concerns of many disabled people, whose lives could be put at risk by a relaxation of the laws surrounding assisted suicide. Click here to see the BBC documentary (UK only).
This, combined with the high profile coverage given to author Terry Pratchett's lecture in favour of allowing assisted suicide, appears to be an attempt by the BBC to sway public opinion in favour of assisted suicide.
Although we sympathise with those going through the suffering of long-term, debilitating illnesses, permitting their relatives and friends to help them commit suicide is not only an assault on the sanctity of life, but opens the door wide open for the abuse, deliberate or otherwise, of vulnerable people.
In countries and states where assisted suicide has been legalised, we have seen that the right to die quickly becomes a duty to die.
Please stand up for the many disabled people whose views have been marginalised by this one-sided BBC coverage. The BBC has a duty to provide balanced coverage of such issues, and their failure to do so on such a critical matter is appalling.
You can help by complaining to the BBC using their official complaints form online. To do so, click here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/complaints/forms/
Alternatively phone them on 03700 100 222 or write to BBC Complaints, PO Box 1922, Glasgow G2 3WT.
We need to make sure our voice is heard by flooding their lines and filling their inboxes with fair, justified complaints over their one-sided coverage of this vital issue.
Early Day Motion on BBC Bias
Ann Winterton MP has submitted an Early Day Motion, noting and condemning the BBC's bias on Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia. Please encourage your MP to sign it.
Write to the DPP
The Director of Public Prosecutions, Keir Starmer, is due within the next few weeks to publish his guidelines on the circumstances in which he would or would not bring a prosecution against someone assisting in the suicide of another person in England and Wales, both within these countries and overseas. Please consider writing to him at the address below, encouraging him to uphold the law as it stands on Assisted Suicide in the guidelines.
Keir Starmer QC,
Director of Public Prosecutions,
50 Ludgate Hill, London
EC4M 7EX.
E-mails: complaints@cps.gsi.gov.uk and HQPolicy@cps.gsi.gov.uk
Click here for an example letter (Word document format)
Pray
Whatever action we take on Assisted Suicide, we must take it prayerfully. God has prevented the legalisation of Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia in the UK many times before, so we must ask him to do so again.