MPs gave a formal first reading to the controversial assisted dying Bill today as disability groups warned against the legislation.
Campaigners on both sides of the debate gathered outside Parliament today ahead of the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill being brought before MPs by Labour’s Kim Leadbeater.
The Bill will come up for debate next month, when MPs will have a free vote.
Disability activists claim the Bill could place disabled people under pressure to prematurely end their lives.
They called for greater access to services and support instead.
Ellen Clifford of Deaf and Disabled People’s Organisations (DDPOs), said: “Parliament only gets one go at this and if they get it wrong the consequences will be very dangerous both for individual people vulnerable to abuse and society as a whole.
“Our support services are currently broken. We must not create a system like Canada where assisted suicide plugs gaps in services, or Oregon where young women with anorexia can end their lives before they find the support they need.”
Phil Friend of Not Dead Yet UK warned: “We have seen, again and again, across the world, that laws that begin with relatively strict parameters, such as terminal illness, expand and expand.
“While we are assured us there will be ‘safeguards’ in reality, these safeguards are virtually impossible to implement effectively.”
Paula Peters from Disabled People Against Cuts added: “This Bill is a danger to disabled people’s human rights.
“Disabled people already feel devalued and we lack support to live life with dignity and have control and choice over our own lives.”
High-profile voices for change include Dame Esther Rantzen, while the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby and actor and disability campaigner Liz Carr have voiced their opposition.
Mr Welby has warned that introducing any form of legislation for assisted dying could lead to a “slippery slope” which widens the eligibility criteria.
The Bill’s long title states that it would “allow adults who are terminally ill, subject to safeguards and protections, to request and be provided with assistance to end their own life.”
Describing the Bill’s introduction as a “bittersweet moment,” campaign group My Death, My Decision said it was a “significant and long-awaited step” to “end the inhumane blanket ban on assisted dying.”
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has previously supported assisted dying but has said the government will remain neutral on the issue.
