Sunday Times champions the euthanasia story of an abusive husband because it fit their pro-euthanasia stance.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

Simon Caldwell, writing on January 21 in the TCW calls the Sunday Times Newspaper a cheerleader for euthanasia. There is nothing new about a newspaper taking an editorial position on a topic but Caldwell argues that:

Since last summer that great watchdog of our liberties, the Sunday Times, has fervently campaigned for the legalisation of assisted suicide.

Barely a week goes by without its running a story planted by Dignity in Dying (formerly known as the Voluntary Euthanasia Society) or its acolytes, invariably without any balancing comments from any of the dozen or so groups run by disabled people who ardently oppose such a law, or the many politicians, doctors, lobby groups and so on who equally insist, with sound reasons, why it would be extremely unwise to license doctors to assist in the suicides of their patients.

Caldwell challenges the Sunday Times in their treatment of the Douglas Laing case:

Cancelling the voices of the weak and vulnerable while giving carte blanche to euthanasia activists is misguided, and the Sunday Times has now compounded its misjudgement by championing the case of Douglas Laing, a former Army nurse who admitted to the newspaper that he administered a lethal injection to his cancer-stricken first wife in 1998 at her behest.

When, on the back of its tear-jerking coverage, Devon and Cornwall Police investigated Laing for murder, the paper was outraged, refusing to co-operate with the force on principle and using its leader column to describe the inquiries as ‘idiotic’ and a ‘wrong-headed and pointless’ waste of police time.

However Private Eye magazine has also taken an interest in Laing, revealing in its latest issue (January 19) that he has form when it comes violence against women, having bludgeoned his second wife Susan with a mallet in 2017, seriously injuring her. Laing admitted wounding her with intent to cause grievous bodily harm and was given a three-year jail sentence. Who knew? If the Sunday Times did, which you would expect it to since it was reported by other papers, it kept it to itself.

Caldwell accuses the Sunday Times of turning a blind eye to Laing's violence against women because his story fit their pro-euthanasia position.

Later in the article Caldwell refers to developments in New Zealand and Canada to explain why euthanasia and assisted suicide should not be legalized. He writes"

In New Zealand, where legal euthanasia came into force only in November, the Ministry of Health admitted in a response to the equivalent to a Freedom of Information request that some Covid patients are eligible for lethal injections. This was not envisaged by legislators but it is permitted by the letter of the law they passed – an unforeseen consequence.

In Canada the removal of a ‘reasonably foreseeable death’ as a criterion of eligibility from the five-year-old euthanasia law there (initial safeguards are frequently later removed) has raised the question of what protections now exist for elderly, given that frailty can be perceived as an intolerable burden warranting a lethal injection.

He concludes by urging the Sunday Times to do their job:

They also merit truthful examination and open debate in the media. They are far too deadly to be ignored or covered up by newspapers who label the police as ‘idiotic’ for doing their jobs properly while they smugly participate in the shameful work of a death cult.

In Canada, during the 2016 debate to legalize euthanasia, nearly every media outlet took a pro-euthanasia stance and then intentionally ignored the positions from groups opposing euthanasia. It was very frustrating when false comments and ideas were provided ink on paper while reasoned opposition was ignored.