If you had been asked a couple of months ago which UK organisation could most be relied upon to support an Assisted Dying Bill, you would probably have said “Liberty”. You would have had good reason to do so. Formerly known as the National Council for Civil Liberties, it has a long history of defending citizens’ rights throughout the world and particularly in the UK. Surely, the right to choose the timing, place and method your own death is about as fundamental as you can get ? It must certainly rank on a par with your right to vote, express your sexual orientation or require an abortion ? Not so, apparently.
Although, since its AGM in 2008, Liberty has been in favour of the principle of Assisted Dying, it has also insisted upon safeguards to prevent coercion. Now, at a time when Kim Leadbeater’s Bill is being criticised for containing too many safeguards, Liberty has put itself in the odd position of saying there are not enough. The Bill as presented “places disabled people, people of colour and other marginalised communities at risk”. Therefore Liberty was calling for the whole thing to be defeated at its Second Reading. They did not share the position of other opponents who were happy for the Bill to pass through its Second Reading but hoped it could be “tightened up” during its subsequent stages. No, for Liberty, only outright opposition in the early stages would be enough.
In the words of one long-serving activist member, the new Liberty policy is “clearly dictated by some ludicrous wokist diversity agenda” and “refusing the release of those in intolerable distress is as culpable as slavery or similar”.
