Care Not Killing is an alliance of multiple groups, including faith-based and pro-life organisations, opposed to legalising

euthanasia Euthanasia (from : + ) is the practice of intentionally ending life to eliminate pain and suffering. Different countries have different Legality of euthanasia, euthanasia laws. The British House of Lords Select committee (United Kingdom), se ...

physician-assisted suicide Assisted suicide, sometimes restricted to the context of physician-assisted suicide (PAS), is the process by which a person, with the help of others, takes actions to end their life. Once it is determined that the person's situation qualifie ...

in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

. The alliance was founded in 2006. Care Not Killing operates through a UK private limited company, CNK Alliance Limited. The stated goals of Care Not Killing include promoting more and better

palliative care Palliative care (from Latin root "to cloak") is an interdisciplinary medical care-giving approach aimed at optimizing quality of life and mitigating or reducing suffering among people with serious, complex, and often terminal illnesses. Man ...

, ensuring that existing laws against euthanasia and assisted suicide are not weakened or repealed during the lifetime of the current

Parliament In modern politics and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...

, influencing the balance of public opinion against any weakening of the law. They are opposed in their efforts by pro-assisted dying groups such as Dignity in Dying and

Humanists UK Humanists UK, known from 1967 until May 2017 as the British Humanist Association (BHA), is a charitable organisation which promotes secular humanism and aims to represent Irreligion in the United Kingdom, non-religious people in the UK throug ...

Background

Between 2003 and 2006 legislative attempts to legalise physician-assisted dying were made after the prominent human rights lawyer Lord Joffe proposed a

Private Member's Bill A private member's bill is a bill (proposed law) introduced into a legislature by a legislator who is not acting on behalf of the executive branch. The designation "private member's bill" is used in most Westminster system jurisdictions, in wh ...

entitled the "Assisted Dying for the Terminally Ill Bill" in the

House of Lords The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the lower house, the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, England. One of the oldest ext ...

. After the bill was first put forward and debated in February 2003, the bill was put forward again in November 2005 but in May 2006, an amendment delaying its introduction by six months was carried and progress of the bill was ultimately halted. At the same time as the Private Member's Bill was being debated for the second time, January 2006 saw the launch of Dignity in Dying, itself a relaunch of the former The Voluntary Euthanasia Legalisation Society, calling for improvements in end-of-life care, including, but not limited to, the option of assisted dying. Care Not Killing was founded in January 2006 largely in reaction events at the time with the ''

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

'' reporting that Care Not Killing needed to take action to counter the pro-euthanasia lobby, which it said was now making a determined attempt to change the law to allow doctors to "kill their patients".

Our Duty of Care

Our Duty of Care (ODOC) is a sister group set up, administered and funded by Care Not Killing (CNK), representing a group of healthcare workers who oppose assisted suicide or euthanasia. The pressure group was formed in 2019 to oppose and subsequently make legal threats against the

Royal College of Physicians The Royal College of Physicians of London, commonly referred to simply as the Royal College of Physicians (RCP), is a British professional membership body dedicated to improving the practice of medicine, chiefly through the accreditation of ph ...

(RCP) after the RCP conducted a poll asking its 36,000 members "what should the RCP’s position be on whether or not there should be a change in the law to permit assisted dying?" that ultimately led to the RCP adopting a neutral stance on the issue after no majority opinion was recorded (43.4% of respondents thought the RCP should be opposed to a change in the law to permit assisted dying, 31.6% were in favour, and 25% took a neutral view). As of 2024, ODOC campaigns are administered by Gillian Wright, a former palliative care doctor based in Scotland and David Randall, a consultant nephrologist working in London. In November 2024 ''

The Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. First published in 1791, it is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper. In 1993 it was acquired by Guardian Media Group Limited, and operated as a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' ...

'' reported that:

Funding

In 2021, ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...

'' newspaper reported Care Not Killing received a donation of almost £90,000 from Brian Souter, the Scottish businessman and

Stagecoach Group Stagecoach Group is a transport group based in Perth, Scotland. It operates buses and express coaches in the United Kingdom. Stagecoach was originally founded in 1976 as ''Gloagtrotter'', a recreational vehicle and minibus hire business. Dur ...

founder who has funded multiple socially conservative campaigns including those against abortion and the repeal of anti-gay legislation.

Alliance members

The members of the alliance include: * Christian Medical Fellowship *

The Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglican tradition, with foundational doctrines being contained in the '' Thirty-nine Articles'' and ''Th ...

* The Church of Scotland * RADAR (The Disability Network)

References

{{Reflist
Anti-euthanasia alliance launched - BBC News

External links