THE campaign to legalise doctor-assisted dying has received support from a major UK political party. Voluntary euthanasia – a key topic for voters at the West district hustings this week – has been backed by the Liberal Democrats.

Delegates at the party’s spring conference in Southport voted by about three to one to adopt medically-assisted dying as policy.

SpeakUpForGuernsey, a local campaign for doctor-assisted deaths to be legalised, welcomed the news. ‘The Lib Dems are the first major UK party to identify the growing trend that people want to see greater patient choice at the end of their lives,’ said Deputy Pat Mellor. She runs the campaign with Ann Crocker, who founded Guernsey4dad after her father died in great pain three years ago.

The campaign’s website has already been updated with the first candidates’ views on the subject.

Deputy Mellor, who is not standing in the election, said that the Lib Dems vote was a milestone.

‘Experienced political representatives have recognised that the law doesn’t work and that highlighting this will not lose them votes. By doing that, they are saying: ﾓYou are in good company in wanting to change this lawﾔ.’

Figures from the Liberal Democrat health research department show that an estimated 18,000 medically-assisted deaths take place every year in the UK, but without recourse to legal safeguards or guidelines to protect patients or staff. Deputy Mellor said that the situation also existed in Guernsey.

The party decided that the situation was unsafe and failed to give patients choice at the end of their lives.

The proposal was backed by high-profile speakers, including the party’s former health spokesman Dr Jenny Tonge MP, Dr Evan Harris MP and party president Lord Dholakia.

Deputy Mellor wants local candidates to represent the views of islanders – 77% of those polled believe that people suffering unbearably from a terminal illness should be allowed to receive medical help to die if they wished, according to last month’s survey by the NOP World research company.

It was commissioned by SpeakUpForGuernsey in a bid to influence the general election in two weeks’ time.

Deputy Mellor felt that the Death with Dignity Working Party, set up after the States supported her 2002 requete by 38 votes to 17, was focusing too much on medical opinion supporting palliative care.

Mrs Crocker said that there should be a law to help those for whom palliative care did not work.

Some 2,500 islanders have returned the campaign’s postcards in support of legalising doctor-assisted death. The cards have been divided into parishes and some will be sent to each candidate to show that they are genuine. Candidates will also receive a list of names of those who returned the card in their constituency.

Mrs Crocker was very pleased with the response.

‘Many have sent letters with the cards giving their stories as well, so it touches a lot of families,’ she said.

Deputy Mellor said it was the third time that people had responded to such a campaign, with different people taking part each time. Hundreds of signatures were collected on a petition to legalise medically assisted death months before her requete in 2002. Later on, about 2,500 people returned a form in the Guernsey Press.

n For more information on the Lib Dem motion follow the News Flash link on the News and Views page at speakupforguernsey.com