Dr Nigel Minihane spoke at an event organised by the campaign group End of Life Choices Jersey ahead of next week’s States debate about permitting the principle of assisted dying.
A GP for more than 30 years and a former head of the Island’s Primary Care Body, Dr Minihane spoke directly to politicians, several of whom attended yesterday’s event at the Pomme d’Or hotel.
Earlier this year a citizens’ jury overwhelmingly backed moves towards assisted dying.
Dr Minihane said: ‘It is extremely important to point out that you have been elected to represent the will of the people and it was you, through our Health Minister, who appointed a citizens’ panel.
‘All the available evidence points to the fact that a sizeable majority of the population support change in the law and it is inherent upon you, our representatives, to take this into great consideration in the forthcoming debate, whatever your personal stance.’
Dr Minihane said that many of the arguments made by those opposing moves towards assisted dying – including fears that it would be unregulated, that it would represent a ‘slippery slope’ and would result in less emphasis on palliative care – were illogical
He added that it was also illogical for Jersey to have introduced the right for a pregnant woman to end a life through abortion, but to deny an individual the right to make a choice about ending their own life.
Silvan Luley, a senior director of Swiss organisation Dignitas, also appeared at the event.
Mr Luley said he hoped that Dignitas, which was founded in 1998, would eventually be in a position to disband if Jersey and other jurisdictions followed other countries in legalising assisted dying.
Speaking ahead of the event, he said: ‘No one wants to come to Dignitas or to come to Switzerland; they only come because they are not offered that option at home.’
Alain du Chemin, an Islander who had made moves to end his life with the help of Dignitas, died in Jersey in May, having been unable to travel to Switzerland.
Paul Gazzard, the widower of Mr Du Chemin, who died of an aggressive form of brain cancer, has also joined the debate by sending an open letter to States Members.
Although he said he was very grateful for the care provided to his husband by Jersey Hospice Care, Mr Gazzard said the couple would have appreciated an alternative option.
‘It would have saved us both so much angst and fear in Alain’s final months to know that he could have had the choice of an assisted death alongside this palliative care, whether or not he chose it in the end,’ he said. ‘Alain did not want to die and I very much did not want to lose him. But that was out of our hands. We simply wanted him to be able to live for as long and as well as he possibly could and then die as well as he possibly could when the time came.’
If States Members support the principle of assisted dying in next week’s debate, draft legislation outlining the details of Jersey’s new law would be prepared by the end of 2022.
