Kim Leadbeater’s Bill to legalise assisted dying in England and Wales is making satisfactory progress so far. It is now halfway through its Committee Stage and is on track for its Report Stage on 25th April. There has been only one change so far; the sensible move to replace “a High Court Judge” with a small panel comprised of a senior lawyer, a psychiatrist and a social worker.
The Committee Stage has, however, revealed that many MPs are almost paranoid in their anxiety about the need for additional “safeguards”. This was not experienced in other countries where assisted dying has been legalised. Some MPs who voted in favour of the Bill on Second Reading are now suggesting they might vote against it unless it contains more safeguards against “coercion”. This may just be a British thing. The word “coercion” is usually heard in the context of domestic violence, so if it has spilled over into the assisted dying debate then the MPs’ anxiety becomes more understandable.
However, think what a patient in England or Wales would already have to go through to get an assisted death under the Leadbeater Bill as it stands. They would need to be over 18, incurably ill, of sound mind, likely to die within six months and have a certificate from two doctors to confirm that prognosis. They would then need to get their application approved by the expert panel and wait for the fourteen day cooling off period to expire. Finally, they would have to find out exactly where and by whom the assisted death itself would happen. This list of safeguards is already far longer than in any other part of the world.
Evidence from Oregon, Canada and elsewhere is that “coercion” does indeed exist but that it is usually applied the other way round. In other words, the patient really does want to die but all the pressure from the relatives is to hang on for a bit longer. In a country like the UK where suicide itself has been legal since 1961, it seems almost bizarre to deny that right to the very people who are at a time in their lives when they might need it most.
