Editor’s note. The following appeared on the blog of John Smeaton, executive director of SPUC—the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children.

Peter Saunders

Anyone concerned about the real threat of dying as a result of euthanasia in Britain should read Peter Saunders's informative post about a new "independent" commission on assisted dying
[www.pjsaunders.blogspot.com/2010/11/serious-questions-raised-about-status.html]. He writes:

"The fact that an ‘independent’ commission on ‘assisted dying’ is to be chaired by a peer who just last year tried to relax the law on assisted suicide, is being funded by a celebrity novelist who is passionately pushing for a change in the law and was dreamt up by a leading campaign group will certainly raise eyebrows."

The truth is that euthanasia threatens all of us in Britain:

• The Mental Capacity Act, in certain circumstances, requires doctors to abandon their patients.

• There is a policy of silent euthanasia, not least through the Liverpool Care Pathway, as leading doctors have warned

• Disabled people are increasingly worried by extreme proposals being put forward by pro-euthanasia legislators

• Dame Mary Warnock, the anti-life philosopher in the House of Lords, argues that certain people with disabling conditions have a duty to die prematurely. (She has said: "If you're demented, you're wasting people's lives – your family's lives – and you're wasting the resources of the National Health Service.")

• The Director of Public Prosecutions has published a prosecuting policy which effectively decriminalises assisted suicide in a wide range of circumstances.

• We have celebrity-led campaigns in favour of assisted suicide which get significant media coverage.

• We have high profile court cases which fill the airwaves and serious mainstream newspapers, like the Daily Telegraph, with anti-life propaganda.

You might want to bookmark Peter Saunders's post for future reference. We can fully expect the media, like the Daily Telegraph, to weigh behind the "independent" commission at its launch next Tuesday and when its conclusions are published in a report next October (2011).