This is Prospect’s rolling coverage of the assisted dying debate. This page will be updated with the latest from our correspondent, Mark Mardell. Read the rest of our coverage here
6th February
11am
A cross-party group of MPs has proposed another amendment to the assisted dying bill, with the charity Humanists UK announcing this morning:
“MPs from the Labour Party, Conservatives, Liberal Democrats, and Green Party have come together to back a new amendment to the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill to allow those with neurodegenerative illnesses to access assisted dying when they have 12 months or fewer to live, rather than six, as currently stipulated in the bill.”
Its statement continues: “The amendment would align England and Wales’s assisted dying law with that found in most of Australia and would be particularly important for people with motor neurone disease (MND), Huntington’s, and multiple system atrophy (MSA), as well as some people with Parkinson’s. Under the bill as introduced, some people with these conditions who meet the eligibility criteria of terminal illness would be excluded as the six-month limit is frequently past the point at which they need an assisted death—and sometimes it is past the point they can even be granted one.
“The amendment is being brought by Tom Gordon MP (Lib Dems), Rachel Hopkins MP (Labour), Alicia Kearns MP (Conservative), Siân Berry MP (Green), Lizzi Collinge MP (Labour), Anna Sabine MP (Lib Dems), Neil Duncan-Jordan MP (Labour), Cat Eccles (Labour), and Vikki Slade MP (Lib Dems), with more expected to come on board over the coming days. It is likely to be debated on Tuesday 11 February. Humanists UK and My Death, My Decision have welcomed the move.”
Proposing the amendment, Tom Gordon MP, who is on the bill committee, said:
“This bill is about ensuring people facing painful deaths from terminal conditions can have the choice of how they die. For those with neurodegenerative conditions, in their last six months, it may be too late for them to engage in the bureaucracy of applying. The amendment I have put forward, supported by colleagues across the House, will ensure more people with neurodegenerative conditions will be able to access an assisted death if that is their choice.”
What do you think of this idea?
5th February
5pm
The planned changes to the bill have been welcomed by Sarah Wootton, chief executive of Dignity in Dying, who said: “The amendments tabled by Kim this week, drafted by the Department of Health and Ministry of Justice, further strengthen it. The coming weeks will allow MPs, from all parties and all sides of the debate, to rigorously test all the propositions in the bill before it is presented to MPs for a final vote in a few months’ time. This level of scrutiny is not only welcome, but vital to ensure this bill better serves dying people than the mess of the status quo.”
She added: “This bill is about addressing the injustices of the current blanket ban on assisted dying, providing choice to those who want and need it and providing greater protections for us all. The Committee Stage is about providing essential scrutiny in order to ensure the end result is an even stronger law that is as compassionate, safe and fair as possible.”
Wootton also said the 50 or so oral witnesses heard last week were important. “Lawmakers and medics from Australia were able to provide reassurance around concerns raised by some witnesses. There, similar laws have been a catalyst for positive change in end-of-life care, patients are better protected against potential abuse, and marginalised communities have not been adversely impacted.”
11am
Kim Leadbeater has just written to all MPs explaining she’s tabled a series of amendments to her assisted dying bill, which concern the role of doctors.
The amendments include:
- A requirement that, in their first discussion with a patient, doctors cannot raise in isolation the provision of assistance to die, but must set out any treatment and palliative, hospice or other care available, including symptom management and psychological support.
- Doctors will need to produce a detailed report into every applicant that includes an assessment with regard to both mental capacity and coercion.
- Training will have to be provided for medical practitioners who are willing to provide the service, including on assessing capacity and identifying coercion.
- Experts in both capacity and coercion, as well as the Equality and Human Rights Commission—which enforces the rights of BAME communities and people with disabilities, among others—would have to be consulted before training and other regulations were put in place.
Leadbeater said: “I am very conscious of the advice from the chief medical officer, Sir Chris Whitty, in his evidence to the committee last week that we don’t want a system that creates a ‘bureaucratic thicket’ that would be too difficult for a person in the last six months of their life to navigate. We need to give terminally ill people choice, autonomy and dignity whilst ensuring the most rigorous safeguards are embedded in the legislation. With that in mind, I believe this bill provides an opportunity to develop the very best end of life care, conversations and choice with ‘gold standard’ training.”
We’ll have the reaction when we get it.
5pm
Plans for assisted dying in France have been dragged into the country’s ongoing political crisis. This is a critical week for the new French prime minister, François Bayrou, as he forces through his budget, sidestepping a vote in the National Assembly. He could well fall if the hard left and hard right unite in a no confidence motion, as they did to bring down his predecessor at the end of last year, leaving the vote on the French euthanasia bill in limbo.
Bayrou was expected to press ahead with the bill, which combined legalising euthanasia with strengthening palliative care—a balancing act between expanding end-of-life choices and improving existing support. There, as here, opponents of the bill argue you cannot have assisted dying without better end-of-life care. But, of course, they don’t really want to make that trade-off. So in what appears to be an attempt to appease the hard right and the most conservative voices, Bayrou has taken a dramatic step and split the two ideas.
Improving palliative care is relatively uncontroversial and looks likely to be approved. Euthanasia, however, remains deeply divisive in France. The issue has now reached a critical point, not just as a policy debate but as a political manoeuvre. However, it is deeply felt. Bayrou, a patrician conservative and an old-style Catholic, has long opposed assisted dying, and his delay is also an attempt to let the bill quietly die. Nor is he ashamed of his views: “You cannot uproot what you believe from what you are, it is impossible.”
Bayrou went on: “What influences the citizen in me on this subject? It is the family man that I am, and perhaps also the son that I was. We are touching on life, and the meaning of life.”
Which is very noble, but it has enraged the Socialists. One of their MPs, Jérôme Guedj, said: “We know François Bayrou’s convictions on this subject. The position of a minority prime minister in a very precarious political context cannot be imposed on the National Assembly.”
The French government insists that the bill is still alive, but its future is uncertain. It may well outlive this government. Even if Bayrou survives the next couple of weeks he will be in constant peril, with many expecting fresh elections in September.
3rd February
11am
The Sunday Times has run an excellent piece on last week’s three days of oral evidence, highlighting eight important questions MPs need to answer. Stephen Bleach, who watched the proceedings, concludes with the evidence of Pat Malone.
“For a few seconds, there was silence. The committee looked shellshocked. In the public seats, some wept. We had finally, you felt, got to the heart of the matter.
“The committee’s task seems impossibly difficult. Malone reminded them why they are trying. His family cannot come back, but if this bill is to pass, these MPs will have to fashion a law that might have given them that deliverance, and not create more victims in the process. I wish them luck. They will need it.“
You can read his full article here.
