NADINE DORRIES: Our new Health 大臣 should care for the sick, not encourage them to end their own lives

By Nadine Dorries, Daily Mail

Published: 01:17 BST, 9 September 2012 | Updated: 08:09 BST, 10 September 2012

Nadine Dorries, 保守的な MP, 中央の Bedfordshire

You would think that the first 職業 of a newly 任命するd 大臣 would be to spend time 征服する／打ち勝つing their 簡潔な／要約する, and honing the arguments necessary to defend 政府 政策.

Not Anna Soubry, 大臣 for Health.

Within three days of her 任命, Soubry gave an interview 布告するing her support for a change in the 法律 to 許す 補助装置d 自殺 to take place in the UK. That is, to 合法的に 容易にする someone asking a doctor to help them to take their own life, and for that doctor or individual to be 解放する／自由な from 起訴 for doing so.

She said: ‘I think it’s ridiculous and appalling that people have to go abroad to end their life instead of 存在 able to end their life at home.’?
In that one 宣告，判決, Ms Soubry 陳列する，発揮するd a 深遠な ignorance of the 攻撃を受けやすい position many of the 無能にするd, 年輩の and chronically sick would find themselves in should she get her way.

I am sure many people would have hoped that a new Health Ministe r would become familiar with cutting-辛勝する／優位 palliative care 概念s, such as the Liverpool Care Pathway.

The fact that in her first public utterance she prioritised enabling people to end their life is alarming.

If Soubry had taken a few days to do her homework, she would have realised that in 最近の years, 補助装置d dying has been 審議d and 拒絶するd by 議会 多重の times and that only around one in five people die in their own home.

Every disability 権利s （選挙などの）運動をする group is 熱心に …に反対するd to legalising 補助装置d 自殺.

Coming as the Paralympics reach a glorious end, Soubry’s タイミング seems 特に insensitive.

In 2010, Keir Starmer, Director of Public 起訴s, relaxed the 法律? ーするために 許す 親族s to take loved ones abroad without 恐れる of 起訴. Since then, the number of people wishing to travel and take their own life has not 増加するd. So who is Soubry speaking for?

Today, there are many 年輩の and 無能にするd people who いつかs feel they are a 重荷（を負わせる） on those who care for them. However, they take 慰安 from knowing they are 保護するd by the 法律.

The thought 過程 of considering whether or not to ask a doctor to take their life is 簡単に not 容易にするd.

昇進／宣伝: Anna Soubry was 任命するd a health 大臣 in the 内閣改造 last week

It is not difficult to imagine, should 安楽死 become 合法的な, how 乱用 could occur. How people could be made to subtly feel as though they are an inconvenience or a 重荷（を負わせる）.

For many, the next of 肉親，親類 is not even a person, but the 明言する／公表する. A hospital or a care home. Not everyone has loving 親族s to 保護する them. Some have not-so-loving 親族s keen to 相続する.

Many people are alone and depend on 保護 from the NHS. In a poor 経済的な 気候 with rising NHS costs, the 選択 to die could very quickly become a 義務 to die.

The British 医療の 協会 審議d and resoundingly 拒絶するd a change to the 法律 and 再確認するd the position of doctors across the UK ?that it is never 権利 for a doctor to 活発に kill a 患者, however sick or 無能にするd ? and they have done this for a number of 推論する／理由s.

Doctors train to make people better, not kill. They are 用心深い that under challenge, should a 事例／患者 to 告訴する a? doctor come to 法廷，裁判所, the 法律 may not fully 保護する them. Each 事例／患者 would be fraught with subjective argument.

Doctors 簡単に do not want 政治家，政治屋s to put them in a position of professional vulnerability and you would be hard 押し進めるd to find a doctor, unless his 指名する was Harold Shipman, happy to 広告 大臣 a lethal cocktail.

The 自由主義の 民主党員 会議／協議会 will be 審議ing and 投票（する）ing on a 提案 to change the 法律 in a way that would delight Soubry. The Lib Dems are the only 政党 to support 安楽死.

This makes Soubry’s 告示 怪しげな. It was breathtakingly audacious, and her position is at 半端物s with most 保守的な MPs. It is hard to believe that she made her 布告／宣言 in the マスコミ so quickly and in such a high profile way without support from No?10.

Is David Cameron using Soubry to 是認する what he wishes to become 政府 政策? Soubry is a Health 大臣. 大臣s don’t do things by 事故.

At this point, it is 価値（がある） 解任するing former Lib Dem MP Evan Harris, who, like Soubry, ran endless プロの／賛成の-abortion and プロの／賛成の-安楽死 （選挙などの）運動をするs when he was in 議会.

In 2005, Harris had an enormous 大多数 of almost 8,000 in his Oxford seat. His 投票者s showed what they thought of his 見解（をとる）s when they 排除する／（飛行機などから）緊急脱出するd him at the last 選挙.

Soubry had a 大多数 of 389 two years ago. It is やめる likely that at the next 選挙 she will 苦しむ the same 運命／宿命 as Evan Harris.

However, her comments have 損失d the 保守的な Party, not just her seat. The public 不信 政治家，政治屋s with an unseemly 利益／興味 in ending life, either of the unborn or the frail.

Ms Soubry was not the only new arrival at the Department of Health last week. Jeremy 追跡（する）, who is a good and sincere man, was 任命するd as Health 長官, her boss.

Next week, 地位，任命する Paralympics, I 心から hope he will undo the 損失 Soubry has done by 公然と 公然と非難するing her 見解（をとる）s and 安心させるing the sick, 年輩の, 攻撃を受けやすい and 無能にするd that their lives are 安全な in his 手渡すs.

The call to legalise 補助装置d 自殺 from the 時折の 患者, にもかかわらず the マスコミ hype surrounding it, cannot be used to 脅す the secur ity of the 攻撃を受けやすい 大多数.?