MPs push to expand incoming assisted suicide Bill

A number of MPs are already pushing for an expansion of assisted suicide proposals to include those who are not terminally ill.

According to The Daily Telegraph, Humanists UK reports that thirteen Government figures and a further 41 politicians want Kim Leadbeater’s Bill in the House of Commons to remove end-of-life protections for those said to be “incurably suffering”.

Although the Labour MP claimed her proposals would only allow those deemed to be terminally ill to receive help to kill themselves, she said that she is “open-minded” and will consider whether to broaden the Bill before she introduces it on 16 October.

‘Homelessness’

Speaking to The Christian Institute, Alex Schadenberg, an expert on Canada’s assisted suicide regime, said politicians need to recognise that it is “impossible” to limit assisted suicide.

The expansion in Canada, he explained, happened “so quickly” because of claims that it is discriminatory to only allow assisted suicide for certain groups.

Schadenberg, the Executive Director of Euthanasia Prevention Coalition said that even where people meet the ‘eligibility criteria’, they are often seeking death because of their “homelessness, their poverty, or the fact they’re going through PTSD and issues like that”.

He highlighted the case of a woman in Vancouver who told a hospital that she was suffering from suicidal ideation, but was offered assisted suicide instead as immediate support wasn’t available.

assisted suicide for homelessness, poverty and PTSD

Disability

Last week, former Paralympic star Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson told BBC Breakfast that every jurisdiction that has introduced assisted suicide has implemented changes either through “legislation or through practice”.

Disability policy expert Dr Miro Griffiths also recently commented: “When there are rigid circumstances you then have a situation where more and more campaigners will say ‘this doesn’t include me and I want to be eligible’, and as we’ve seen across the globe, you’ll then have pressure to expand criteria”.

The Prime Minister has pledged to allow parliamentary time to consider a Private Member’s Bill on assisted suicide. The House of Commons last voted on the issue in 2015, when MPs overwhelmingly rejected an attempt to introduce assisted suicide by 330 votes to 118.