We are now just six days away from the decisive House of Commons vote on the revived assisted suicide Bill on Friday 11 September.
Lord Alton has written the following message for people like you who are helping to stop the assisted suicide Bill passing next Friday.
If you have not already, please email your MP now asking them to vote NO on 11 September.
Before anything else, thank you.
Whether you have visited your MP, met them at a constituency surgery, written a personal letter, sent emails, telephoned their office, spoken to friends and neighbours, shared the campaign in your church or community, you have helped bring us to this point.
You have ensured that the case for protecting vulnerable people cannot be ignored.
After almost two years of campaigning since Kim Leadbeater introduced her assisted suicide Bill, we have reached the home straight.
One week today, MPs will vote at Second Reading on the revived assisted suicide Bill tabled by Lauren Edwards MP. On the arithmetic of the last Commons vote, a swing of just 12 MPs would defeat it.
Some parliamentary votes are forgotten by the following week. Others outlive the Parliament that cast them and alter the moral landscape of a nation.
This is not an ordinary parliamentary vote. It is one of those rare decisions that can permanently change the character of a country, like the Abortion Act did when it was passed in 1967.
When Parliament passed the Abortion Act, that one decision reshaped not only our law, but our entire culture and our understanding of the value of human life.
Despite the promoters of the Bill saying it was not their intention to leave a wide-open door for abortion on demand, in the decades since the Act was passed, more than 10 million unborn lives have been lost to abortion, while many women and families have been left carrying grief and pain that are too rarely acknowledged.
Indeed, Lord Steel, the architect of the Abortion Act, later said that he never anticipated “anything like” the current volume of abortions when promoting his Bill.
MPs are now being asked to cross another threshold: from a law that prohibits assisting another person’s suicide to one that would make helping patients end their lives through assisted suicide a lawful part of healthcare.
Before entering the House of Commons, I spent five years teaching children with special needs.
The last child I taught, Ian, was dying from cystic fibrosis. He and his family taught me far more than I taught him. He died only a few weeks after I entered Parliament.
Ian’s life left me with a simple conviction: illness, disability and dependence do not reduce human worth. They deepen our responsibility to accompany, support and care for one another.
The Government’s impact assessment on the new Bill, published last Friday, reveals how much the projected scale has grown since MPs considered the previous Bill. Its central estimate for the scheme’s tenth year has risen by 60%, from 2,183 to 3,502 assisted deaths.
Its high scenario now projects 6,257 assisted deaths in that year. That is more than 17 deaths every day. A number of experts say these projections are likely substantially underestimated, and could be much higher.
This is not an abstract danger. In a single year, thousands of people could die by assisted suicide if this Bill becomes law.
These are not merely figures on a page. They are people who may be elderly, disabled, seriously ill, frightened, isolated or worried that they have become a burden, who will have their lives ended.
At the heart of this debate is a simple question. When someone is at their most vulnerable, should our law say, “We will care for you, protect you and stand beside you”? Or should it offer assistance to end their life?
If this Bill ultimately becomes law, our country will never be the same again.
But I do not write to you in despair.
This Bill can be defeated.
At Second Reading, the previous Bill passed by a majority of 55. By Third Reading, after months of scrutiny, that majority had fallen to 23. The Bill then fell after it failed to complete its passage through the House of Lords before the end of the parliamentary session.
In Scotland this year, a similar Bill went from a 14-vote majority to a 12-vote defeat.
Minds can change. Votes can move.
The last Commons majority was 23. On that arithmetic, just 12 MPs changing sides on Friday would defeat this Bill.
One week and 12 votes are not the measure of an impossible task. They are the measure of a winnable one.
Most of you reading this have already contacted your MP. Thank you. If you have not yet done so, or if a friend has forwarded this message to you, I have included Right To Life UK’s simple 30-second tool here:
Email your MP before Friday and ask them to vote against the Bill.
Some of you may know an MP personally, or know someone who does. If so, now is the time for a direct approach. A brief, respectful appeal in person or by telephone, asking them to be in the Chamber and vote against the Bill on Friday, could carry particular weight. If the connection is through someone else, ask them today to make that appeal. Please do not assume that someone else will.
For most of you, however, the task now is not repetition. It is multiplication.
Every new person you persuade to act may bring another constituency and another MP within reach. A friend, relative or colleague may be able to influence an MP you cannot. One of their messages may be the one that moves the 12th vote.
Think of ten people who may share your concerns: family members, friends, neighbours, colleagues or people from your church or community.
Before you close this email, press Forward, add one personal sentence and send it to all ten:
“I have emailed my MP about Friday’s vote. Will you take 30 seconds to email yours?”
A personal request from someone they trust may be more successful than a general campaign message.
If WhatsApp is easier, I have also included a link to the ready-written message Right To Life UK circulated earlier. You can check the wording and then choose ten friends, family members or appropriate church or community groups to send it to:
Share with friends on WhatsApp
You can also send it to a church, family or community group where it would be welcome.
One supporter reaching ten other people could generate ten more constituent emails. One of those emails could reach one of the 12 MPs whose decision determines the result.
When I was 21, I was elected to Liverpool City Council from a ward regarded as hopeless, with only six fellow students helping me on the ground. I have never forgotten what a small group of determined people can accomplish.
During my 18 years in the House of Commons, I learned never to underestimate sincere personal messages from constituents. They can give an MP both a reason and the courage to reconsider. The same is true of a personal appeal from someone an MP knows and trusts.
If you know an MP personally, whether or not they are your own MP, or know someone who does, now is the time to act. Make one final appeal yourself, or ask your contact to do so, in person or over the telephone if possible. Ask the MP directly to attend the vote on Friday and vote against the Bill, explaining briefly, in your own words, why this decision matters. Even if the subject has come up before, ask once more. In a vote this close, one sincere conversation could be decisive.
History will record how MPs vote next Friday. But what happens in the Chamber may be decided by what each of us does before then.
Please do not wait until the middle of next week. Before you close this email, choose your ten people and contact them.
We have fought this Bill for almost two years. We are now within one week and 12 votes of defeating it. Let us use every day, make every message count and finish what we began.
With my deepest thanks,
Lord Alton of Liverpool