Ask your MP to help 
stop the assisted suicide Bill being brought back on Wednesday

The MP for Rochester and Strood, Lauren Edwards, has announced that she intends to use her number two slot in the House of Commons’ Private Members’ Bill ballot to reintroduce the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, which failed to pass in the previous session.

Rather than choosing a Bill that can command the support of not only her constituency, but the general public, it is deeply disappointing that Ms Edwards has announced her intention to bring the inherently flawed assisted suicide Bill back. 

DIVISIVE WITHIN THE PARTY AND FOR THE COUNTRY

Bringing back the flawed assisted suicide Bill would be an enormous distraction for the Government and would only serve to further divide the Labour Party, in particular, at a time when unity is needed to address the core issues facing the country. 

NO PUBLIC APPETITE

The public does not want this Bill to become law. Polling by Whitestone Insight found that the public’s top priorities are reducing NHS waiting lists, lowering energy prices, controlling immigration, growing the economy, tackling inflation, and reducing crime. When asked whether legalising assisted suicide should be a priority, the public ranked it last of 20 priorities, with only 5% of the public listing it as one of their top three possible priorities. 

Pushing this specific Bill into law unamended via the Parliament Acts is also deeply unpopular. In a recent poll of the general public, 69% of those polled believed that family members and/or next of kin should have the right to be told about a family member’s request to have a doctor help end their life. However, under the current Bill, there is no requirement to inform or involve family, and nothing in the Bill to prevent assisted suicide from effectively taking place in secret, meaning a loved one’s death may only be discovered afterwards. In addition, 73% of those polled stated that only the patient should be able to raise the option of receiving help to end their life. Yet, under the current Bill, a doctor can raise the possibility of ending one’s life by assisted suicide unprompted. These areas, which the public wants to see addressed, cannot be fixed if the Bill is pushed through via the Parliament Acts, as is being proposed.

FLAWED BILL, INHERENT RISK

The Parliament Acts have only been used a handful of times (just 7 times since 1911) for Government legislation, and never for a Private Members’ Bill like the assisted suicide Bill. Not only would forcing the Bill into law via the Parliament Acts be extraordinary, but it would also embed all the flaws highlighted by the House of Lords’ necessary and commendable scrutiny of the Bill.

None of the following groups and expert bodies support the Bill: the Royal College of Physicians, the Royal College of Psychiatrists, the Royal College of Pathologists, the Association for Palliative Medicine, the British Geriatric Society, the British Association of Social Workers, the National Down Syndrome Policy Group, Mind (the charity), Standing Together Against Domestic Abuse, the Equality and Human Rights Commission, and more besides.

The Constitution Committee, Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee, a Joint Committee of Human Rights standalone inquiry, and a House of Lords Select Committee all identified flaws in the Bill, which must be addressed. Even the sponsor of the Bill in the Lords, Lord Falconer, has conceded that the Bill is flawed in several key ways which require amendment. None of this can be addressed if the Bill is forced through via the Parliament Acts, bypassing House of Lords scrutiny. 

WOULD NOT PASS

Fewer than 50% of MPs supported the Bill in the previous session at Third Reading, and it would take only 12 MPs to change their mind in order for the Bill to fail in the new session. Already, since the Bill was in the Commons in the previous session, at least seven MPs from Labour, Conservative and Liberal Democrat benches who previously supported the Bill at Third Reading have now said they do not support plans to force it into law via the Parliament Acts, or to bring back the Bill in this new parliamentary session at all. These MPs are likely to be the tip of the iceberg and represent views shared by many other MPs who do not want to be bogged down with this divisive debate. 

TAKE ACTION

The reintroduction of this Bill is not wanted, is not safe, and should not be how valuable parliamentary time is spent. It is not too late to stop this from happening. MPs successful in the ballot present their chosen Bills to Parliament on Wednesday 17 June, so there is a very small window to act to persuade Lauren Edwards to change her mind, even at this late stage. 

Please write to your MP today, asking them to do all they can – including talking with Lauren Edwards urgently – to dissuade her from bringing back the flawed assisted suicide Bill. It is vital that it is clear to MPs that their constituents do not support this profoundly inappropriate attempt to force assisted suicide into law. 

Enter your postcode above to use our EasyAction tool to write to your MP and ask them to persuade Lauren Edwards not to bring forward a new assisted suicide Bill, but to introduce instead a Bill that can unite the country.