Dark day as MPs vote in favour of assisted suicide Bill

MPs have voted in support of the principle of Kim Leadbeater MP’s assisted suicide Bill.

The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill intends to allow those in England and Wales deemed to be terminally ill and with less than six months to live to receive help to kill themselves. MPs have now voted by 330 to 275 in favour of legalisation.

The backbench MP’s Private Member’s Bill will now proceed to Committee Stage, where it will be considered further.

‘Life and death issue’

The Christian Institute’s Director Ciarán Kelly told Christians not to give up on challenging the dangerous proposals: “It’s deeply disappointing that the Commons has agreed to endorse this dangerous and divisive Bill. I’m grateful to the many MPs who spoke and voted against it, and the fight is not over.

“We know that the more people know about assisted suicide, the less they like it. Those MPs who supported the principle of the Bill but have concerns about its practical implications must now take the time to scrutinise it properly. They will find the promised safeguards are nothing more than a mirage.

“They will have a further opportunity to vote against the Bill before it clears the Commons and if it does go to the House of Lords, it is by no means guaranteed to pass there.

“I would urge Christians to keep on praying and to be ready to approach their MPs again over the coming months. This is a life and death issue. Now is not the time to give up.”

‘Protection’

Numerous MPs spoke out against the Bill as it was being debated in the House of Commons, with Labour stalwart and Mother of the House Dianne Abbott saying: “Robust safeguards for the sick and dying are absolutely vital to protect them from predatory relatives, to protect them from the state, but above all, to protect them from themselves.

“There will be those who say to themselves they don’t want to be a burden; and I can imagine myself saying that in particular circumstances. Others will worry that assets they had hoped to leave for their grandchildren are being eroded by the cost of care.

“And there will even be a handful who will think they should not be taking up a hospital bed.”

“True dignity consists of being cared for ’til the end.” Danny Kruger MP

‘Intrinsic value’

Conservative Danny Kruger appealed to his fellow MPs to vote against the Bill, saying: “We are the safeguard — this place, this Parliament; you and me. We are the people who protect the most vulnerable in society from harm, and yet we stand on the brink of abandoning that role.

“The Rubicon was a very small stream, but on the other side lies a very different world: a worse world, with a very different idea of human value. The idea that our individual worth lies in our utility, valuable only for so long as we are useful — not a burden, not a cost, not making a mess. Let’s not be the Parliament that authorises that idea.”

He added: “Since we are surrounded by such a cloud of witnesses, let us do better than this Bill. Let today not be a vote for despair, but the start of a proper debate about dying well, in which we have a better idea than a state suicide service, in which we remember that we have intrinsic value, that real choice and autonomy means having access to the best care possible and the fullest control over what happens to you while you live.

“That true dignity consists of being cared for ’til the end.”

‘Dread and fear’

Labour’s Mary Kelly Foy shared her own experience of caring for a loved one, saying: “My daughter Maria lived her life with severe disabilities and health conditions, and since her birth, we were told many times that she might have only six months to live.

“She lived for 27 years. Crucially, Maria was non-verbal, and I am filled with dread and fear for those other people like Maria who are non-verbal and don’t have that capacity, and what might happen to others like Maria if they aren’t loved and cared for and have somebody speaking out for them.

“It’s deeply disappointing that the Commons has agreed to endorse this dangerous and divisive Bill.Ciarán Kelly – Director, The Christian Institute

Rachael Maskell MP said: “We fight in this house to take stigma, give dignity, equality and worth. It is why disabled people fear this Bill: It devalues them in a society where they fight to live.

“Understand why Disability Rights UK opposes, why Liberty opposes — to push back against this Bill is the cause of the progressive, the libertarian, not just the domain of the conservative.”

Defending liberty

Former Lib Dem Leader Tim Farron said: “I urge all of us to stand in defence of those most vulnerable people, to defiantly defend their liberty, to make a renewed commitment to world-class palliative care, and to human dignity, and to reject this Bill.”

Dr Ben Spencer, Conservative MP for Runnymede and Weybridge, said: “As a former mental health doctor, I’m most proud that I was there for the most vulnerable, and today I think about those without voice in this debate or in the TV studios.

“I think about the elderly woman in a care home with mild cognitive impairment; retains capacity, but nevertheless vulnerable to coercion and undue influence. Or the sick mother, whose child may lose their job or relationship due to the burden of caring responsibilities.

“This Bill doesn’t protect them. It risks placing implicit pressure on people already vulnerable at a time of life they should be receiving our unwavering care and support. We should and must vote it down.”

‘Death instead of surgery’

Florence Eshalomi, Labour MP for Vauxhall and Camberwell Green, said: “Put simply, we should be helping people to live comfortable, pain-free lives on their own terms, before we think about making it easier for them to die.”

And her colleague Paulette Hamilton pointed out that some of the worst abuses in Canada have originated when doctors have proposed the idea of assisted suicide to their patients.

“A 51-year-old Canadian cancer patient was notoriously offered death instead of surgery. Even though our proposed system has its differences, this is still a risk I am not willing to take. The current law presents us with a clear boundary, that can never be crossed. It avoids all slippery slopes with no room for error.

“Legislation of assisted suicide would replace this with an arbitrary boundary that is rife for misunderstanding, error, and at worst, abuse.”

Do Not Resuscitate

Blair McDougall, another Labour MP, said he used to support legalisation, but that while he had heard emotive stories in favour, his mind was swayed against.

“The things that have moved me in this debate to opposing this Bill today, is that I’ve also heard stories of disabled people who have had Do Not Resuscitate put onto their medical records without their permission, of them being stopped by strangers in the street and being told ‘You would be better off dead.'”