Write to your MP about assisted suicide

The Leadbeater Bill

Labour MP Kim Leadbeater is taking an assisted suicide Bill through the House of Commons. We're acutely concerned about this. Assisted suicide would be a seismic, and negative, ethical change comparable to the Abortion Act 1967.

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Please write to your MP now to ask them to vote against the Bill. To do this quickly and easily, type in your postcode in the box below, click 'FIND' and you will see a template email to make use of. You can amend the email and send it to your MP.

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Write to your MP about assisted suicide

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Your Message

As a constituent of yours I am asking you to vote against the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, brought forward by Kim Leadbeater MP.

At every stage of this Bill’s journey through Parliament, it has become more dangerous. During last week’s report stage proceedings, an amendment to prevent doctors raising assisted suicide with patients who have not brought it up themselves was voted down. On 16 May, an amendment to give hospices and care homes an opt out was rejected. And amendments to protect people with learning disabilities and anorexia were among those rejected at the committee stage.

Whatever you think of assisted suicide in principle – I am opposed to it – many people believe that the specific Bill brought forward by Kim Leadbeater is not fit to become law. For a Bill of such profound consequence, it has not had the depth of scrutiny you would expect. Only a handful of the amendments brought forward at report stage have been voted on. The Bill has also been roundly criticised by expert groups including Royal Colleges, and disabled people’s organisations.

I would urge you to consider the impact of assisted suicide on local hospices and care homes, which are already under a huge amount of strain. People in these settings are vulnerable. As I have noted above, doctors are to be allowed to raise the issue with their patients. I am concerned that people will feel pressure to choose death because they feel that they are a burden, or because they think it’s what a doctor is recommending – even if that is not the case.

Many disabled people are worried about the Bill because of the message it sends – that lives marked by disability and illness aren’t worth living – and because of the pressure which disabled people who lack state support would feel to choose assisted death. It would be wrong to legislate for a situation where it is easier to choose death than it is to access support to live. But this is what assisted suicide would mean for many people.

At a time when NHS services in our area are overburdened, and people are waiting far too long for basic care, how can we even contemplate an assisted suicide law? Patients will not have a genuine ‘choice’ at the end of their lives when they can’t get the best standard of care. There is also the alarming prospect of private companies being charged with the provision of assisted death and enabled to make a profit from them.

It cannot have escaped your notice that the clamour for assisted suicide is coming from a well-funded, celebrity-backed campaign. They cite a very small number of people who travel overseas to end their lives each year. Whilst this is tragic, I believe that many of these people could have been enabled not to make this tragic choice by receiving better counselling and care. Care – not state assisted suicide – is the answer.

As a parliamentarian, it is your duty to advocate for all constituents – and especially those who are vulnerable, and voiceless. It is these people who would be at risk of the worst abuses under an assisted suicide law. We need to uphold the strongest protections for all people, and massively enhance the political time and resources put into palliative and end-of-life care, to allow every Briton to get proper support when they need it.

Please vote against the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill when it reaches third reading. And I would be grateful if you would let me know your voting intentions. I would also like you to know that I pray for you, and other MPs. I'm very grateful for all the work you do, in a challenging profession.

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