Rob George

Jobbing academic clinician serving the dying; inquisitive but irritating; open to challenge; bored by cant so may not respond. I cycle, photograph & think.

[Prof Katherine Sleeman @kesleeman]

In the last available accounts (2023) Dignity in Dying spent over £100,000 average every month on campaigning to achieve Assisted Dying legislation! And that was 2023…

[Dan Hitchens @ddhitchens]

This is the basic reason why the AS bill failed. One impartial expert organisation after another looked at the detail and concluded that it was a nightmare in the making:

[The Christian Institute @christianorguk]

Tomorrow, Lord Falconer will attack the House of Lords for doing its important job of scrutinising the assisted suicide Bill.

What a mercy they did. Without Peers' indefatigable efforts, would anyone have spotted that changes proposed by Lord Falconer would have actually stripped out safeguards added by MPs?

[Rob George @profrobgeorge]

Important, Kevin. The beginning of wisdom, as the Chineses say, is to call things by their proper names. What would you call his offence?

[Kevin Yuill @historykev]

This is a prolematic ruling. Much as the husband sounds vile, we must have moral culpability for an action. The whole meaning of suicide is someone ending their OWN life. Murder means ending someone else's. It is contradictory to rule that an action is a suicide but someone else is responsible.
People sometimes ask why I am so insistent about calling 'assisteddying' #assistedsuicide or #euthanasia. It is because through normalizing changes to our language we are losing all sense of moral responsibility. https://t.co/aXFjmmlUGV

[Nikki da Costa @nmdacosta]

Lord Stevens, former Chief Exec of NHS England, categorical that the PMB approach has been an utter failure. "The idea that we should legislate, [when so many hospices announcing cuts], when that is the context, right now seems to me utterly ridiculous".

[Prof. Mark Taubert @ProfMarkTaubert]

Telegraph View: "If as much time and effort were spent on improving palliative, hospice and NHS hospital care as has been expended on this issue then people may not feel the need to seek an assisted end to their lives." AssistedDyingBill

[Dan Hitchens @ddhitchens]

Profoundly moving story from Baroness Finlay, former BMA president and a leading figure in palliative care, about one of her patients.

“36 years ago a GP referred a distraught young man whose prognosis—as estimated by him, the surgeon, and the oncologist—was about three months, saying: ‘He is the most clear-cut case for euthanasia I have ever seen.’

“In total pain, desperate for lethal drugs, with his youngest child only six weeks old, his care was challenging, particularly in the first fortnight.

“Eleven years after that visit, and after many times of complex care, David phoned me. His beautiful young wife was dying of advanced cancer. By then a wheelchair user, he and his three children were with her in the hospice as she died.

“Just two days ago, I visited David, who—with his three fine adult children who he has brought up on his own despite his disability—said I could speak of this, in tribute to him and all his care has taught me.

“They’re watching this debate today. I know they have tuned in. It’s a great privilege to be entrusted with such care.”

(h/t @nmdacosta)

[Right To Life UK @RightToLifeUK]

❓YET ANOTHER UNANSWERED QUESTION!

In response to questioning from @JeremyRBalfour, the Cabinet Secretary can't say which professions or organisations would be able to opt out of assisted suicide processes in Scotland.

This is not good enough for a Bill at this late stage.

[The Other Half @OtherHalfOrg]

POLL: just 20% of Scots would support a bill that allows people with anorexia to end their lives.

"The Bill has no safeguards to stop women with anorexia finding doctors willing to help them end their recovery."

Fiona Mackenzie MBE of @OtherHalfOrg

[Our duty of care UK @OurDutyOfCare]

Did you spot ODOC Director Dr Gillian Wright on Reporting Scotland yesterday?

⚠️ There's still time to make YOUR voice heard: email your MSPs today, asking them to reject the McArthur Bill on 17th March https://t.co/xlSHRDIfFp

[Russell Findlay @RussellFindlay1]

Why I'm voting against the assisted dying bill:

[Dan Hitchens @ddhitchens]

A fresh perspective (really!) on AS from the National Director of Health and Wellbeing at Public Health Wales, writing at @BMJ_SPCare.

Articulates v clearly how “clinical pathways requiring fewer resources tend to become dominant”.

[Dr Lucy Thomas @LucyT34023]

@JeremyVineOn5 Absolutely.

As a palliative care doctor supportive in principle, I’m appalled at how this Bill has been pushed by those unwilling to engage with the complexities.

Journalists should speak to those of us who do— not just celebrities & politicians.

https://t.co/hpot2p0d14

[Claire Fox @Fox_Claire]

Another Friday, another full day of Lords Committee debates - and sadly another insulting row about whether some of us are filibustering. I objected to this misinformation campaign's snidey, nasty, defamatory attacks on individual's reputations.

[Jamie Gillies @jmgillies]

The UK Govt will not be giving the Assisted Dying Bill extra debate time in the Lords, meaning it will very likely fall. It’s politically toxic and unworkable. So is the Scottish Bill. Time to focus on proper palliative care. https://t.co/bgdRkUSRv0

[Rob George @profrobgeorge]

@Baroness_Nichol Many thanks to you. Says it all really.

[Emma Harriet Nicholson @Baroness_Nichol]

@#EstherRantzen

[democracy4all @CrAPwematter]

https://t.co/oPELYB2smS

[Nikki da Costa @nmdacosta]

Falconer wants peers to curtail debate on Starmer's Bill and limit their concerns to just 10 issues. IF they agree to his timetable, he's offered to say what he is willing to do on those issues. He isn't offering a compromise nor proactivity - all the movement is on one side 1/

[Dan Hitchens @ddhitchens]

Story after story from Australia of people choosing an assisted death because of a failure of public services.