Care Not Killing: Vulnerable at risk by change in euthanasia law

The judge was right to spare David March jail for helping his severely ill wife die but changing assisted suicide laws would be dangerous, an anti-euthanasia campaign group has argued.

Director of Care Not Killing Peter Sauders told politics.co.uk that judge Brian Barker had "very wisely tempered justice with mercy in upholding the law against assisted suicide while clearly showing compassion in this very unique" case.

Calling for "better palliative care", he said this would mean "requests for euthanasia from people terminally ill would virtually disappear".

He added: "The key issue is whether we should change the law for a small number of desperate cases.

"To do so would place a much larger group of vulnerable people – such as the sick, the lonely and the depressed – under pressure to request early death because they felt themselves to be a financial or emotional burden on their relatives or carers."