Paul Bloomfield writes in favour of assisted dying law change as a representative of Dignity in Dying group
Some of the most vital social changes in our country have come through Private Members’ Bills – decriminalising homosexuality, legalising abortion, and permitting divorce among them.
Now Kim Leadbeater’s bill to introduce assisted dying as a choice for terminally ill, mentally competent adults joins their number as a timely and profoundly necessary intervention. The problem it addresses is clear.
The current patchwork of laws, conventions and policies fails dying people, criminalises loving families, and protects no one. Far too many have seen loved ones suffer against their wishes despite the very best palliative care.
Some have faced criminal investigation for supporting a relative’s final wish to die on their own terms in Switzerland. Others have had family members resort to lonely deaths behind closed doors.
My father was one of the estimated 650 terminally ill British people who take their own lives every year, leaving shattered families. The assisted dying bill not only introduces choice, it also introduces robust protections to ensure that this choice can be accessed safely.
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Right now, if someone ends their life in Switzerland or alone at home, there is no oversight. No check for coercion. No assessments of whether more care or treatment could have alleviated their pain or their fears.
Not, that is, until after they have died, which is when the current system deems it appropriate to assess whether anything malign has taken place.
An assisted dying law allows us all to live life in the knowledge that we won’t be forced to suffer as we die – and for many people, that knowledge keeps them with us for longer. We are in well-charted territory.
The cross-party Health Select Committee, on which I sat, examined how existing assisted dying laws are working in practice, in some places for decades.
We found that even the best palliative care cannot alleviate all suffering and where assisted dying is legal, the overwhelming majority who choose it are in palliative care. Healthcare professionals reported that open and honest conversations at end of life improved relationships with patients.
Once passed, these laws work well. They work safely. They have popular support. And there has never, in any jurisdiction, been an attempt to repeal them.
This Bill represents hope for a better, safer, fairer approach to these agonising decisions – which dying people will continue to be forced to make alone, without proper oversight or regulation, if MPs fail to act on Friday.