Dozens of MPs could withdraw support for assisted suicide Bill over doctors’ concerns

Dozens of MPs who voted in favour of Kim Leadbeater’s assisted suicide Bill have suggested they may withdraw their support over what medics’ involvement may be.

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.

It passed its Second Reading in the House of Commons with a majority of 55 votes, and is soon to be considered by a committee, but several MPs scrutinising it say it must change in order to progress.

Slimming majority

Among other changes they hope to secure, MPs are particularly keen to ensure medical professionals are prohibited from suggesting assisted suicide to their patients.

The Guardian reports that as many as 30 MPs are prepared to withdraw their support if such assurances are not given, which could potentially cause the Bill to fail at its Third Reading.

One MP told the newspaper: “I was happy for it to progress, but there are concerns as well that I’ve got that will be addressed before it actually becomes law.”

They added: “I think that 55 majority will start [being chipped away at]. I think it will pass probably between 10 and 20 majority. And that then starts to make things potentially more difficult in the Lords.”

‘Risk of accidental coercion’

Labour MPs Chris Webb and Mike Tapp, both of whom voted for the Bill, are in favour of amending it to try to reduce scope for coercion.

Webb said that 60 per cent of 400 constituents who responded to his survey had indicated they want assisted suicide to be legalised, and that he had voted for it on that basis. But he added: “I do feel it needs further robust scrutiny and debate and I will consider my position in the ensuing stages while continuing to listen to all perspectives.

“I’m uncomfortable that it allows doctors to suggest to patients they could take their own lives and believe this needs to be removed from the bill.”

And Tapp told BBC News: “It should only be discussed if it is raised by the patient. This helps mitigate the risk of accidental coercion, or the perception of a hint, at a time of immense emotional distress and vulnerability.”

Adult social care

Former Cabinet minister David Davis also voted in favour of legalisation, but told the Commons: “I say to both the bill’s sponsors that it has a number of areas that they know I think they have to put right – about a dozen, in truth.”

He added: “After the ‘Do not resuscitate’ scandal during the Covid crisis, I do not want that at any price – I do not want the state initiating this process. That is critical for me.”

Josh Fenton-Glynn MP, a member of the Health and Social Care Select Committee, said: “I’ve seen how family coercion works around care budgets. I have seen dreadful things. Any adult social worker will tell you that they’ve seen dreadful coercion from people who probably do love the person involved, but they end up coercing because it’s the thing that made their life easier at that point.”

He noted there are “more safeguards if you want to give a kidney than if you want to access an assisted death”.

Dame Esther Rantzen

At the end of last year, Dame Esther Rantzen, one of the most prominent supporters of Kim Leadbeater’s Bill, revealed in a list of “ten things that make me so happy to be alive” that she is now reaping the benefits of a new ‘wonder drug’ to treat her stage-four lung cancer.

She says the new drug, Osimertinib, could extend her life by years, but Telegraph Assistant Editor Michael Deacon pointed out that, had assisted suicide been legal a year ago, “Dame Esther might no longer be with us. Because she herself might well have taken advantage of the opportunity she has so passionately campaigned for”.

He continued: “the celebrity figurehead of the ‘assisted dying’ campaign has unwittingly highlighted the crucial point that, even if a couple of doctors reckon that you’ve got only a few months left to live, they might well turn out to be wrong.

“Your life, like Dame Esther’s, may yet be prolonged by some marvellous new medication – enabling you to continue revelling in the everyday joys that she celebrates in her list.”