An MP, who has promoted suicide prevention day, has received significant backlash on X after also indicating his intention to propose assisted suicide legislation.
Yesterday Jake Richards, newly elected Labour MP for Rother Valley, wrote an article drawing attention to the “tragedy” of male suicide, which he says is “a leading cause of death for men under 50”, taking the lives of as many as 80 men per week.
“World Suicide Prevention Day is an opportunity to begin addressing this epidemic” he said, arguing that “government action becomes essential” to tackle this crisis and that further mental health support is “critical”.
“Male suicide is a national tragedy that requires immediate action”, he added.
However, the new MP has faced a backlash on X after a number of users pointed out that he has also said he intends to bring forward a bill to make assisted suicide legal. After being drawn eleventh in the Private Members’ Bill Ballot last week, Richards said “I’ve made it clear that my first preference for a bill would be to reform our archaic assisted dying laws” and said he would work with assisted suicide lobby group ‘Dignity in Dying’ for this end.
A contradiction: support for suicide prevention and for assisted suicide
Now though, some members of the public are noticing an apparent contradiction between his opposition to suicide but his support for assisted suicide. After Richards posted about preventing suicide, one X user replied saying “Absolutely! We should do everything in our power to prevent suicide. For example, you could NOT introduce a bill to legalise assisted suicide…” and “Wait, aren’t you the MP introducing a Private Member’s Bill to legalise assisted suicide?”.
Another user replied to Richards saying “Every suicide destroys a universe. Which is why I presume you have reconsidered & will NOT be proposing your eugenic backdoor “patient culling” #AssistedSuicide legislation?”.
At the time of writing, the MP has not responded to these comments.
In Oregon, which UK assisted suicide campaigners, Dignity in Dying, cite as a model for rolling out legislation to the UK, in 2023, 207 men ended their lives by assisted suicide. According to the 2020 census, Oregon has a population of 4,237,256. At the same time, England and Wales have an estimated population of 60,238,000 as of mid 2022. If England and Wales were to have the same assisted suicide rate among the male population as Oregon did in 2023, approximately 2,943 men would end their lives by assisted suicide each year, which equates to 57 deaths per week.
Spokesperson for Right To Life UK, Catherine Robinson, said “Many people, including Jake Richards MP, fail to see the tension between supporting assisted suicide but discouraging suicide in general”.
“Those people thought by others to be suffering intolerably – in Oregon’s case, those thought to be terminally ill with six months or less to live – are facilitated to end their own lives by the state, but in different circumstances, they are not. The only difference is the judgement that some lives are not worth living”.
“This is the judgement that Richards is making, whether he realises it or not. He is deciding that some people’s lives are worth living – the 80 men who sadly take their own lives every week. These men, he rightly thinks, deserve the protection of the law and additional support. However, he seemingly does not think people at the end of their lives deserve the same protection in law or support to dissuade them from taking their own lives”.
