Despite a deeply divided Cabinet, a vote on making assisted suicide legal could be held before Christmas as the Prime Minister backs plans to fast-track the legislation, according to The Mail on Sunday.
While those at the end of their lives currently have the same legal protections as everyone else against assisted suicide, The Mail on Sunday has revealed that a “divisive vote” on legalising assisted suicide “could be held within weeks”. If a Bill on the issue became law, this would usher in one of the greatest social changes since the Abortion Act in 1967.
A source in the Labour Party told the paper “The wheels are turning. It has been made clear to the MPs at the top of the ballot that the PM backs a change in the law”.
While newly elected Labour MP Jake Richards has already made clear his intention to introduce a bill to make assisted suicide legal after he came eleventh in the Private Members’ Bill Ballot earlier this month, Keir Starmer is reportedly engaged in accelerating the process.
Since Richards is too low in the ballot to guarantee time for a debate, Labour MPs higher up are being encouraged to take the proposal forward. The Mail on Sunday reports that, last Friday night, one Labour MP on the ballot admitted to being offered two additional staff to assist him in drafting a bill if he proposed legalising assisted suicide.
Opposition to assisted suicide within the Labour Cabinet
However, the Prime Minister’s own Cabinet remains deeply divided on the issue. Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood has said “I don’t intend to support it”.
“I know some MPs who support this issue think, ‘For God’s sake, we’re not a nation of granny killers, what’s wrong with you’… [But] once you cross that line, you’ve crossed it forever. If it becomes the norm that at a certain age or with certain diseases, you are now a bit of a burden… that’s a really dangerous position”.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting has also expressed serious reservations about the idea, declaring himself “conflicted” on assisted suicide.
The Health Secretary discussed the importance of making sure “people aren’t coerced into exercising their right to die” because of a lack of support in end-of-life care.
“Candidly, when I think about this question of being a burden, I do not think that palliative care, end-of-life care in this country is in a condition yet where we are giving people the freedom to choose, without being coerced by the lack of support available”, he added.
A Government spokesperson said “Successive governments have taken the view that any change to the law in this sensitive area is a matter for Parliament. This Government will not stand in the way of any debate and votes”.
The most recent substantial attempt to legalise assisted suicide in the House of Commons was in 2015 when former backbench Labour MP Rob Marris introduced the Assisted Dying (No. 2) Bill as a Private Members’ Bill. This attempt was soundly defeated at the Bill’s second reading by 330 votes to 118. Starmer was one of the 118 MPs who voted in favour of assisted suicide at that time.
Since 2015, several other Private Members’ Bills have been introduced to Parliament with none of them progressing past Second Reading.
Lord Falconer, who has failed to change the law on assisted suicide on six previous occasions since 2009, has introduced another assisted suicide Bill, which awaits Second Reading in the House of Lords.
Biased Citizens’ Jury
These latest developments come at the same time as an extreme ‘Citizens’ Jury’ on assisted suicide found more participants supported the inclusion of child euthanasia than opposed it. It has been revealed that the Citizens’ Jury was funded by a major donor to the assisted suicide lobby and commissioned by a research body whose director used to head up a pro-assisted suicide pressure group.
The results of the Citizens’ Jury, organised by the Nuffield Council on Bioethics, allegedly showed “broad support for a change in the law in England” on assisted suicide. However, it has since been revealed that the ‘jurors’ appear to have been a highly partisan selection of people who took extreme positions on the issue of assisted suicide and euthanasia that are not widely supported by the public.
Spokesperson for Right To Life UK, Catherine Robinson, said “Making assisted suicide legal, including the clear threat it poses to people with disabilities and people who are otherwise vulnerable, is a very dangerous idea. As the Prime Minister’s own Cabinet realises, in the context of a struggling healthcare system, the notion that assisted suicide would be freely chosen rather than a result of coercion cannot be taken seriously”.
“Evidence from Canada and Oregon clearly show that, for many people who end their lives by assisted suicide (or euthanasia in the case of Canada), concerns about being a burden are very real. We would be naive to think, in our highly atomised society, that such trends would not be operative in our own country too”.
