An assisted suicide Bill received its First Reading today as MPs prepare for a vote on the issue before December.
Labour MP Kim Leadbeater tabled her Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill earlier today and, while details of the Bill have not yet been released, reports suggest it is likely to be similar to Lord Falconer’s assisted suicide Bill, which has been withdrawn from the House of Lords. That Bill was his seventh attempt to change the law on assisted suicide.
Second Reading, in which MPs will have the opportunity to vote on the Bill, is scheduled for 29 November.
Leadbeater’s Bill comes after it was reported that the Prime Minister was behind the Government approaching Labour MPs high up in the Private Members’ Bill ballot, encouraging them to take forward a Bill on assisted suicide.
A “broken” health service
The introduction of the Bill comes as many elderly people go into winter with their Winter Fuel Payment cut by the Government, as palliative care services are in crisis with 100,000 people dying each year needing palliative care but not receiving it, and a wider healthcare system also in a state of crisis, with Labour’s own Health Secretary describing the NHS as “broken”.
No major disability advocate groups in the UK – including Disability Rights UK, Scope and Not Dead Yet – support a change in the law to introduce assisted suicide or euthanasia.
No doctors’ groups in the UK support changing the law to introduce assisted suicide or euthanasia, including the British Medical Association, the Royal College of General Practitioners, the Royal College of Physicians, the British Geriatric Society, and the Association for Palliative Medicine.
In particular, there is strong opposition to introducing assisted suicide from doctors who specialise in working with people with incurable conditions at the end of their life.
A survey of palliative care doctors who are members of the Association for Palliative Medicine found that 82% oppose the introduction of assisted suicide. The results of the Association for Palliative Medicine survey have been mirrored in a more recent survey of doctors by the British Medical Association, which found that 83% of palliative care doctors oppose a change in the law to introduce assisted suicide, while only 6% supported such a change.
The general public doesn’t see law change as a priority
A recent landmark poll published in The Telegraph found that the general public placed legalising assisted dying as 22nd out of a list of 23 possible priorities for the new Government.
The poll also revealed public concerns over the practicalities of legalising assisted suicide with more than half of poll respondents who expressed a view believing there were too many complicating factors to make it a practical and safe option to implement in Britain.
Right To Life UK is encouraging members of the public to urgently contact their MP to ask them to oppose the Leadbeater assisted suicide Bill. They can do this using the easy-to-use tool Right To Life UK has launched on its website. The tool can be accessed at www.righttolife.org.uk/ASthreat.
Spokesperson for Right To Life UK, Catherine Robinson, said “Legalising assisted suicide presents an acute threat to vulnerable people, especially in the context of an overstretched healthcare system. Even members of the Prime Minister’s own cabinet recognise this problem and that, within this setting, certain people will likely be particularly vulnerable to coercion”.
“With an NHS described by the sitting Health Secretary as ‘broken’, and the 100,000 people who need palliative care each year dying without receiving it, this assisted suicide legislation is a disaster in waiting”.
“Every suicide is a tragedy and this remains the case for those nearing the end of their life. The situation for people who may already have a serious illness is not helped by a failing health care system and a cold home. In such cases, vulnerable people may feel pressured to end their lives prematurely. This would be an extremely poor indictment of our healthcare system and society as a whole”.
“The UK must prioritise properly funded, high-quality palliative care for those at the end of their life, not assisted suicide”.
“We are calling on members of the public to urgently contact their MP asking them to oppose the Leadbeater assisted suicide Bill”.
