MP column: Jon Pearce on the assisted dying bill

On Friday MPs will vote on the Terminally Ill (End of Life) Bill. This will be a free vote, so all MP’s will be able to vote on the basis of their own conscience.

I am grateful to all of you that have contacted me and completed my survey on this highly complex and emotive subject. I have read each submission carefully and am particularly grateful to those who have told me of their own personal experiences. 

The responses I have received have been split evenly between for and against. Polling suggests that the majority of people in the UK support some form of assisted dying. In principle I agree that there are certain limited circumstances where people should be able to choose how to end their life. My wife is a doctor and her experiences caring for people suffering intolerably with cancer and other illnesses has definitely influenced my view.

With that as my starting point, I have looked carefully at the Bill. It provides that assistance could only be offered to a person to end their own life if they are terminally ill and are expected to die within six months. To proceed the person must be assessed by two doctorswho must agree that the person has the capacity to make the decision and that they have made it voluntarily. Finally, the process moves to the High Court for approval. 

Many people have raised concerns with me about a slippery slope, with the initial limited scope of the Bill being extended. There is evidence of this in other jurisdictions such as Canada and the Bill may face legal challenges to extend it on discrimination grounds to other groups who are suffering. Parliament in the UK is sovereign, and should such slippage be contrary to the will of a parliament it could be overturned. 

The area where I have the most concern is the Bill’s protections against a person feeling pressured into ending their own life. The Bill does not provide a process for how a Court should establish such a finding of fact. It does not compel the Court to hear from the person seeking to end their life. The person’s family do not need to be informed and there is no right of appeal other than by the person applying to end their life.

It is estimated that 100,000 people in the UK do not have access to the palliative care they need. Faced with expensive care or having to rely on family and friends, I am deeply concerned the elderly, vulnerable or disabled may feel they are a burden and choose assisted suicide not because they want it for themselves but out of a belief it is in the interests of others. 

I am yet to make a final decision. I will carefully listen to the debate, but unless I get some further reassurances around the protections in the Bill that will prevent vulnerable people from feeling pressured into ending their own life, I will with a heavy heart have to vote against.