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A new government report has suggested that the passage of the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill would disproportionately endanger those of an ethnic minority. This comes at the same time as the projected number of deaths from state-sanctioned suicide have quadrupled.
The impact assessment says that poverty, poorer access to care, lower quality care, and domestic abuse would put BAME people in a detrimental position that ultimately results in them slipping through the safeguard net.
Simultaneously the number of expected users of the death service will have increased from 1,078 during the Leadbeater Bill to 4,610 under the Edwards Bill, though the text is effectively the same. This supports what has been seen in other jurisdictions that allow the procedure: deaths increase rapidly and unceasingly.
The report also admits that disabled people will feel greater coercion to die than others, not just because of pressure exerted by others but because of systemic barriers that exist in society that hinder their lives. Such problems could also arise due to the proxy system established in Clause 21 of the Bill.
Disability advocates from the group Assist Us To Live have authored an open letter to the new Prime Minister Andy Burnham talking about their fears that the “constant devaluation” of the lives of disabled people, including being made to feel like “burdens” and “benefits scroungers.” They have asked Burnham to vote against the Bill to protect them.
The new PM authored a letter to Labour MPs saying he will abstain on 11th September.
This comes at the same time as a poll commissioned by the anti-assisted suicide women’s group, The Other Half, says that people across every parliamentary constituency in the United Kingdom believe that we must fix palliative and social care before legislating on death. 60% of the country agreed with the statement.
The same poll shows 61% of the constituency of Lauren Edwards MP, the Terminally Ill Adults Bill’s sponsor, do not want her sponsoring a bill that would circumvent the House of Lords. Only 7% of her constituents had assisted suicide as a top three priority.
SPUC CEO John Deighan commented on the revelation, saying: “Yet again we stand and say that this iteration of the assisted suicide Bill is not safe, and that no iteration of the Bill will ever be safe. Those who are disadvantaged and overlooked in society will have their lives put in danger when the state is ceded the power to help them commit suicide.”
He continued, “Suicide is wrong and should always be prevented. If this Bill were to pass it would change the fabric of society and the way we see care. We cannot let people slip through the net when the danger is death.”
