Jersey's health minister against assisted suicide

Jersey's health minister says she will not support any moves to legalise assisted suicide.

Deputy Anne Pryke, who nursed her own husband through a terminal illness, said life was a privilege and should be protected.

She said that she believed dying people often worried they would be a burden on their families, and that the state should work carefully to help them.

Care for such ill people should be about relieving suffering, she added.

Last week a group of experts called for a change in the law to allow assisted suicide.

They have argued that the current system is incoherent and needs to change.

But the panel - the Commission on Assisted Dying - acknowledged that any new arrangements would have to be carefully regulated to protect the vulnerable.