First, thank you to everyone who has written to their MP outlining serious problems with how Kim Leadbeater and her allies have conducted scrutiny of the Bill at Committee Stage.
If you have not yet contacted your MP, please do so now by using our easy online tool available here.
SENSIBLE AMENDMENTS REJECTED
Since we last updated you on the expert witness evidence sessions that formed the first part of Committee Stage, the Committee has moved on to line-by-line scrutiny of the Bill.
During line-by-line scrutiny, MPs have had the opportunity to table amendments to the Bill.
So far, over 80 amendments, which were proposed by MPs who are concerned that the supposed safeguards in the Bill are not strong enough, have been considered by the Committee and, in every case, rejected.
Astonishingly, today, this included the assisted suicide Committee rejecting amendments, supported by a number of eating disorder charities, designed to explicitly prevent people with anorexia from being eligible for assisted suicide, as they have been elsewhere.
This followed the Committee rejecting amendments from Sarah Bool MP, who herself has diabetes, which would have prevented a condition that can be managed by treatment, such as diabetes, from counting as a terminal illness eligible for assisted suicide.
Today, the same Committee also rejected an amendment that would have required someone to have a consultation about palliative care options before being able to have an assisted suicide, so that all other options are made available to them. This was voted down by the Committee by 15 votes to 8.
CENTREPIECE ‘SAFEGUARD’ REMOVED
As you may have observed in the media, at 10pm the night before the first day of line-by-line scrutiny, Kim Leadbeater announced that she would be tabling an amendment to scrap the “safeguard” in the Bill that required a High Court judge to approve assisted suicide applications.
The Independent reported that, during the Second Reading debate, 60 MPs identified the High Court judge safeguard as an important reason for their support, with a further 20 pointing to the necessity of “judicial oversight”.
Since the announcement that Leadbeater would scrap this key “safeguard” in her Bill, five major national newspapers – The Independent, The Times, The Telegraph, the Daily Mail and The Sun – have run editorials that raise serious concerns about the Bill.
These major newspapers have been joined by dozens of prominent media commentators and experts who have come out against the Bill.
This has included the Government’s own chief suicide prevention adviser, Professor Louis Appleby, who was featured in The Guardian last week covering his concerns about the impact on suicide prevention work if the state concedes that taking one’s own life should be allowed in some circumstances.
Most importantly, a number of MPs who supported the Bill have indicated to The Times that they are having second thoughts about voting for the Bill at Third Reading.
WHAT’S NEXT?
As you can see, the more time MPs, the media and the general public have to examine the assisted suicide Bill, the more they are waking up to the fact that this is a dangerous piece of legislation that must be rejected.
We now have only 59 days left until 25 April, the date when it is currently expected that the Bill will be voted on at Third Reading. This is when we will have an opportunity to ensure that this dangerous Bill is defeated.
Ahead of Third Reading, the Committee will hold a number more sessions.
We will continue to be live posting video highlights from these Committee sessions along with helpful commentary on our X account.
While you may not be on social media or are cautious about joining these platforms, the conversation on social media, and on X (formerly Twitter) in particular, is hugely influential with MPs and media outlets.
The content we are posting is being viewed hundreds of thousands of times – and reposted by high-profile and influential commentators, journalists and MPs.
This is playing a big part in helping shape the online and media conversation around this dangerous assisted suicide Bill – which in turn is helping with the wider work that people like you are doing to encourage your MP to vote against the Bill at Third Reading.
If you are on X, we encourage you to follow us and repost the helpful content we post on X so that we can help get this very important content out to an even wider audience.
If you are not on X yet, should you be prepared to join, you can do so by clicking here. Once you have joined, please follow us and repost our content to help get the word out.
If you are not able to help out with reposting this content, please do keep the pressure up on your MP. If you have not emailed them yet, outlining serious problems with how Kim Leadbeater and her allies have conducted scrutiny of the Bill at Committee Stage, please do so now by clicking here.
Thank you for taking the time to read through this email and do keep up the great work that we know so many of you are doing to ensure this dangerous assisted suicide Bill is defeated.