Sir Ed Davey ‘hugely sceptical’ about assisted suicide

The leader of the Liberal Democrats has voiced serious reservations about removing end-of-life protections for the vulnerable.

Speaking to Sky News, Sir Ed Davey said an assisted suicide law risked putting elderly people under pressure to end their lives for fear of being a burden.

Labour backbench MP Jake Richards has announced his intention to introduce an assisted dying Bill to the House of Commons, after coming eleventh in the Private Members’ Bill Ballot.

Palliative care

Sir Ed explained that his concerns about changing the law derived from his experience of caring for his terminally ill mother.

He said: “I nursed my mother as a teenager when she was dying of bone cancer, and I saw someone who had a very painful disease, and by nursing and giving palliative care, she was able to enjoy life and be with us”.

Consequently, the Lib Dem leader said, he believed that “palliative care can be very, very effective. I think if we invest in our hospices, we invest in palliative care. I think a large part of the concerns that people have will go away.”

Pressure

He also raised concerns about “the pressure it could put on elderly people, not pressure coming necessarily from the relatives, but from them inside, internally, which they may not express.

“I think a situation where elderly people might think they’re a burden and then proceed with this, that’s a huge worry and I think we should focus on that”.

When asked whether he might be persuaded to drop his opposition to legalising assisted suicide, the party leader replied: “it will take a lot to shift me”. He added: “I think we need to debate this, but I do come to it as a sceptic”.

Sir Ed was not an MP in September 2015, when the most recent legislation on assisted suicide to be voted on in the Commons was defeated by 330 to 118.

Necessary protections

In a letter to The Daily Telegraph, Conservative Peer Lord Shinkwin echoed Sir Ed’s worry that “legalising assisted dying would risk making elderly people feel like a ‘burden’”.

He continued: “I have deep respect for those who, with the best of intentions, argue that assisted dying is compassionate and progressive.

“Unfortunately, the law is not there to protect elderly or disabled people from compassion and good intentions. Rather, it exists to protect them from the worst of intentions at a time when they are at their most vulnerable and prone to feeling like a burden.

“Wherever assisted dying legislation has been introduced, we have seen the progressive erosion of safeguards. We ignore that at our peril.”