DO YOU KNOW HOW THIS FEELS?

"Human life has been priced rather low until recently." says Andy Berry, a person with disability who is spokesman for Alert in the current controversy over Diane Pretty and "assisted suicide". "Now the terrible loss of life in New York bas made some politicians speak of its value.

"But in Britain the main threat to the lives of vulnerable people still comes from our own Government. The Lord Chancellor's planned 'Menta1 Incapacity Bill' would licence killing in secret, with doctors causing death by dehydration in patients' 'best interests'. All that delays that Bill is a lack of Parliamentary time."

The Diane Petty case

"Diane Pretty's claim for her husband's right to kill her will be heard on l0th October and reach the House of Lords before Christmas. Counsel for the Director of Public Prosecutions and the Home Secretary are opposing the claim", says Andy Berry. "but they have blocked the admission of evidence from Hospice doctors with wide experience that patients with motor neurone disease need not die 'choking', as has been stated, or in any way that is lacking in dignity."

"Do you know how this feels from our side?" asks Andy Berry.

"It feels as if no-one cares, as if everybody just wants us to accept the inevitable and let history take its course towards the killing of people who need medical help or skilled nursing. We are not going to do that.

"We've got to resist what, to us, is the 'slippery slope'. It's not about individual choice (despite what our opponents may say, there are many limits on freedom that society accepts), it's about valuing everyone.

"I've only been involved for the last couple of years. If anyone had told me then that we'd be on the verge of euthanasia's acceptance (the inevitable consequence of Mrs. Pretty winning her case), I would not have believed how quickly it would happen.

"Part of the trouble is that people who care aren't standing up and being counted as valuing all human life. They probably think we're doing it for them. If you think that, then think again.

"ALERT, SPUC and the Medical Ethics Alliance have been given leave to make written submissions in the Pretty case. We are an overworked group of people without Legal Aid, facing what seem to be huge opponents, including (sadly) the Government.

"If the facts cannot be given to the Court, they can at least be given to the public."

"No, we won't give up. We won't go away. But please support us before it's too late."

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