Assisted dying cut up as Justice Secretary sounds ‘demise on demand’ warning

A huge split has emerged over assisted dying after the Justice Secretary said the state should “never offer death as a service”.

In a letter to constituents Shabana Mahmood warned a controversial Bill – set to be put before MPs on Friday – would create a “slippery slope towards death on demand”. She said it would pile pressure on elderly, disabled, sick and vulnerable people to end their lives.

It comes as a poll of more than 17,000 people by think tank More in Common found 65% of the public support assisted dying, with 13% against. Those who lost a parent in the past five years are 18 points more likely to strongly back assisted dying, it found.

The Bill, put forward by Labour backbencher Kim Leadbeater, has split the cabinet. Ms Mahmood and Health Secretary Wes Streeting said they will vote against it. But care minister Stephen Kinnock and Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall are among those who say they will back it.

In her letter, reported by The Observer, Ms Mahmood wrote that the Government should “protect and preserve life, not take it away”. And she went on: “The state should never offer death as a service.”

MPs are being given a free vote, meaning they can make up their own minds without direction from their party. Ms Kendall said she would be supporting the legislation, stating: ” In today’s day and age, sudden deaths aren’t as common, thank goodness, because of medical advances. So more and more of us are seeing families and friends die over a longer period.

“And I think it’s really important that within our families and as a country, we talk about that because I think it could be different for different people.”

Ms Leadbeater responded to the Justice Secretary’s remark: “The Bill would give dying people the autonomy, dignity and choice to shorten their death if they wish. The law as it is now offers no comfort to those that even the very best palliative care cannot help.

“And it offers no protection whatever against coercion or pressure on those in their last weeks or months of life.”

A group of 29 faith leaders have also warned the law change could turn the “right to die” into people thinking they have a “duty to die”. But supporters have urged politicians to get behind the Bill in the historic vote.

In a letter to MPs, medics who provide assisted dying support in Australia and New Zealand wrote: “The UK’s ban on assisted dying is not safe and it is incompatible with the values of modern health care. It is surely wrong that the options dying people have available to them can be so different between Commonwealth countries that have so much in common.”

Leading barristers including former director of public prosecutions Sir Max Hill KC have spoken in favour of the Bill, saying it would offer better safeguards than the current system through a process involving two doctors and a judge. Ms Leadbeater has described her Bill as the most “robust” in the world, with “three layers of scrutiny” in the form of a sign-off by two doctors and a High Court judge.

It would also make coercion an offence with a possible punishment of 14 years in jail. The Bill, which covers England and Wales, states only terminally ill adults with under six months left to live and a settled wish to die would be eligible.