Christian MP speaks out against Assisted Suicide

A Christian MP has spoken out against assisted suicide, warning about falling into something resembling Canada’s ‘dystopian situation.’’

Danny Kruger, the Conservative MP for Devizes, told BBC Newsnight that Canada was “now on the brink of allowing [assisted suicide] for pretty much anybody who requests it.” Canada had launched its Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) programme in 2016 with stringent safeguards, many of which have now been eroded.

Mr Kruger pointed to the many instances of where assisted suicide is being granted for reasons other than terminal illness, saying, “It’s an absolutely dystopian situation that’s developing there, I do use inflammatory language because I’m afraid it reflects the reality, we’ve got people with anorexia, people with eating disorders, young women who qualify for an assisted death and have been euthanised by doctors.”

Canada has come under much criticism in recent months, with horror stories emerging, including:

• Plans (temporarily put on hold due to backlash) to euthanise people with mental health conditions

• Cases where people have been euthanised as they have chosen death rather than go into poverty

• People with disabilities coming under pressure to choose assisted suicide, including a Paralympian being offered it rather than having a stairlift installed in their home

Mr Kruger, who chairs the APPG for Dying Well, mentioned that Parliament had recently been informed by Canadian stories of “story after story of people whose family didn’t believe they should be receiving this, who were not terminally ill, but who wanted to die because of other reasons…those people have been effectively killed by the state because they weren’t being looked after properly.”

Public consultations have recently concluded in Westminster, Jersey and the Isle of Man, and Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney, is putting a bill before the Scottish Parliament to introduce Assisted Suicide in Scotland.

Mr Kruger has filmed a Channel 4 documentary with his mother, Prue Leith, who supports the introduction of assisted suicide, called ‘Prue and Danny’s Death Road Trip’, examining different perspectives on the assisted suicide debate.