Parliament could be set to pass assisted suicide in the House of Commons within the course of the next week. Friday 13 June will see MPs debate and potentially vote on a number of amendments to the prospective legislation brought by Labour MP Kim Leadbeater. Then, MPs in the House will likely hear the Third Reading of the bill the following Friday 20 June.
This is to say that, parliament could be about to put through a bill multiple large medical bodies, social and palliative care groups, 350 Deaf and Disabled People’s Organisations (DDPOs) have unequivocally opposed. Crucially, they have each highlighted the serious risks the bill poses to some of the most marginalised people in the UK.
In particular, it could dangerously impact poor, chronically ill, disabled, older communities, and those living with mental health conditions. These happen to be all groups the pro-assisted suicide camp has repeatedly smeared, gaslit, ignored, and excluded from processes surrounding the bill.
Assisted suicide bill: amendments and then a possible vote within the next week
A huge number of representative bodies, charities, and community campaign groups have come out against the bill. These include, but is not limited to:
- Every single 350 DDPO across the country.
- The Coalition of Frontline Care for People Nearing the End of Life. This is a partnership between a number of the leading organisations in health and social care for older people.
- Prominent Royal Colleges: the Royal College of Psychiatrists, and most recently, the Royal College of Pathologists. The Royal College of Physicians adopted a provisionally neutral stance, but has also laid out deep reservations about the current bill.
- More than 1,000 doctors have urged MPs to vote against the bill just this Monday 9 June.
- Eating disorder charities. More than 250 people who have lived with eating disorders also wrote to MPs on Thursday 12 June to ward them against passing it.
- Multiple palliative care doctors.
Nevertheless, Leadbeater and supporters still plan to try ram the bill through. A growing number of MPs have purportedly changed their mind since the Second Reading in November. Some had already conditioned their support at Third Reading on the committee strengthening the bill’s safeguards. Consequently, as severe concerns about the bill come to light, more and more MPs are pulling their support.
Despite this, it’s still unclear how many MPs will support it, and how many will vote against. According to ITV, so far it knows the voting intentions for 222 out of 650 MPs, relaying that:
94 MPs are so far planning to vote for it, 97 plan to vote against it, 14 remain undecided and 17 are due to abstain.
What are MPs debating and voting on this Friday?
Parliament will be debating a number of amendments to the bill on Friday 13 June.
Kim Leadbeater has included an amendment to broaden who has “no obligation” to participate in assisted dying provision. It stipulates that no person is under any duty to provide assisted suicide. It specifies how medical practitioners, health and social care professionals, and pharmacists can refuse to participate in the provision of assisted suicide.
She has also introduced clauses about replacing the doctor overseeing or the independent doctor involved the provision of assisted suicide. It sets out how the Secretary of State can appoint a new doctor to continue the process towards the patient getting approved for assisted suicide. The amendment raises the issue that disability rights campaigners and others – including disabled parliamentarian Tanni Grey-Thompson – have underscored around patients “shopping around for doctors” to approve an assisted death.
A further amendment she has tabled requires doctors who have refused an assisted suicide application to produce a report. This would set out their reasons for rejecting it. They would have to send this to the patient, the patient’s GP, and the so-called Voluntary Assisted Dying Commissioner.
Then, there’s one that concerns regulation of approved substances and devices used for assisted deaths. Dr Caroline Johnson MP has made an amendment to this to ensure the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) is consulted before the Secretary of State makes any such regulations. It also requires the MHRA to have approved said ‘medical devices’.
A further amendment to Leadbeater’s from Gregory Stafford MP forbids the use of medical devices that kill the patient using gas. Tom Tugendhat has added an amendment that would stop governments from using Henry VIII powers to make these regulations.
Leadbeater’s prohibition on advertising: a disingenuous fig leaf
Leadbeater also wants to introduce a clause to prohibit advertising around assisted suicide. Already a sign of how ill-defined and ripe for abuse this clause would be, a further amendment closes a loophole which allows for “exceptions”.
The example it gives is advertising to “users” – in other words, potential patients – and providers. The Guardian gave the Spen Valley MP a soapbox, reporting on a letter she has written to MPs to promote this. However, the “exceptions” provision Leadbeater has built in obviously makes a mockery of the suggestion it would present an outright ban.
Will nonprofits pushing to expand assisted suicide be encompassed by this? Pro-assisted suicide lobby group Dignity in Dying mounted a concerted Facebook campaign ad spree. The group also put astoundingly insensitive and problematic promotions in the London Underground. Leadbeater could be offering the ban in response to this. In other words, it’d act as a strategic fig leaf to push the bill over the line.
However, there’s no guarantees the regulations would capture these types of promotions in their scope.
Basic safeguard amendments show what a mess the assisted suicide bill is
Then, there are a huge number of amendments from other members of the House. Many of these MPs have brought them forward after Leadbeater and her pro-assisted suicide-stacked committee shot them down at committee stage. Now, MPs concerned over the state of the bill’s supposed ‘safeguards’ are left with this last-ditch attempt to shore up woeful protections for marginalised and vulnerable communities the legislation will put at risk. For instance, these include amendments ensuring:
- No health professional can raise assisted suicide with a patient first. Another amendment specifically ensures this for individuals with Down Syndrome or learning disabled people.
- Appointment of a consultation board comprised of people representing marginalised communities. Specifically, it stipulates that the board must consult Black, Asian, and other racially minoritised communities.
- That doctors and the Assisted Dying Review Panel is sure “beyond reasonable doubt” that patients have satisfied all criteria for approval of assisted suicide. This includes criteria around capacity, and acting without coercion or under pressure.
- No detriment for care homes or hospices not providing assisted suicide – ensuring funding is not conditional on their participation. Nearly 350 end of life care clinicians have written to the health secretary this week on this. They have warned that if the government pulls NHS funding to hospices over their refusal to take part in assisted suicide services, it would force them to close.
- To stop the meaning of terminal illness encompassing those who become so by voluntarily stopping eating and drinking.
- Remove the automatic assumption that a person applying for assisted suicide services has capacity.
Eligibility made contingent on whether a person has “relevant and available” palliative care options.
That these aren’t already part of the bill should raise blaring alarm bells among MPs before a final vote.
The slippery slope in action
Meanwhile, other amendments demonstrate the very slippery slope risks that chronically ill and disabled communities have been warning about. Pro-assisted suicide MPs are seeking to expand the scope of the bill. Liberal Democrat Tom Gordon, with the support of other Lib Dems, Labour, and Green MPs, has tabled an amendment to increase the bill’s provision from six months to within a year of dying for those with neurodegenerative illness or disease.
Dr Ben Spencer has put forward one to simply remove the six month time limit eligibility altogether.
Of course, ultimately parliament will not get to vote on many of these amendments after debating them. The speaker will decide on which of these the House gets to make a decision over.
What’s more, an aspect of parliamentary procedure could further restrict the time MPs get for deciding on these. This is because the speaker can also choose from the list of amendments from the last debate on 16 May. Parliamentary rules dictated that the vast majority could not be moved for decision by the speaker at the first debate. This is down to rules revolving around the order they appear in the amendment paper.
No amount of amendments will make assisted suicide safe for marginalised communities
At the end of the day however, no amount of amendments will make the assisted suicide legislation safe for those this neoliberal capitalist society continues to sideline. The bill enters into a UK where the state is pushing chronically ill and disabled people into deadly poverty with sweeping welfare cuts, health and social care is inaccessible to non-existent, and the corporate media and politicians alike scapegoat, dehumanise, and exploit marginalised demographics.
While all this remains the case, legalised assisted suicide will be ripe for abuse. State and societal coercion will intersect as an ever-present, treacherous lived reality for oppressed communities. These are facts MPs voting on this bill in the coming week would do well to remember
Featured image via the Canary
This post was originally published on Canary.