Win or lose the vote on assisted suicide – and we are on a knife edge – the opposition to Kim Leadbeater’s bill is growing.
The might of key sections of the medical profession is ranged against Leadbeater’s dangerous and deadly bill. On the eve of the final day of the Report stage of the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill Jess Asato, Labour MP for Lowestoft, shared the joint statement released by the Royal College of Physicians (RCP) and the Royal College of Psychiatrists (RCPsych), calling out the deficiencies of the bill.
We must be clear neither body is opposed to assisted suicide in principle, both take a neutral stance which is tantamount to supporting the practice in principle. However, there’s a big gap between supporting the idea of assisted suicide and what it would mean in practice. This is what these two august bodies have realised.
In particular, the RCP and the RCPsych are critical of the way in which the bill would compel doctors to make decisions about assisted suicide on their own. This would not happen in any other area of medicine they say, where doctors’ work in a multidisciplinary team. They go on to point out that there is inadequate protection for vulnerable people in the bill and furthermore the Mental Capacity Act has no framework for assessing a person’s capacity to decide to end their life. Finally, the NHS is in no position to handle the additional demands of assisted suicide.
The statement ends by pointing out that the RCP and the RCPsych together represent around 42,000 physicians and psychiatrists in England and Wales.
Impassioned message
Naz Shah, Labour MP for Bradford West, put out an impassioned message saying: ‘We MUST listen to the experts.’
She points to the Royal College of Pathologists which has come out opposing the bill. In their statement, they are clear that they hold no position on the ‘ethical issues relating to assisted dying’, their members hold a range of views on this. But once again reality bumps up against ideology. Pathologists, says the Royal College, are not qualified to review the decision-making and circumstances of an assisted death. They would also have to speak to the bereaved family, who may not even know that their loved one had applied for assisted suicide until after the event. Another major deficiency of the bill put under the spotlight by a professional body.
Will Ms Shah’s parliamentary colleagues heed her words? Let’s hope so.
Urgent open letter
Other experts we must hope MPs listen to are those who are concerned that Ms Leadbeater’s bill puts people with eating disorders at risk. 32 experts representing a range of eating disorder charities sent an ‘Urgent open letter’ to MPs highlighting the dangerous ‘anorexia loophole’ in the bill. In their letter to MPs they lament the fact that their recommendations to close this loophole were rejected at Committee stage.
Reality exposed
The heartening aspect of the current assisted suicide debate is that the reality of what assisted suicide means in practice has been clearly exposed by bodies who state they are not opposed in principle to the practice. The concerns of medical bodies highlight that assisted suicide would be impractical and untenable. This, of course, falls far short of the pro-life position. But this opposition does expose that no legislation is ever going to plug the gaps to make assisted suicide ‘safe’. Because state sanctioned suicide is not safe.
Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson has reportedly written to MPs circulating a summary of the problems with the bill.
The former paralympian has long been outspoken about the risks assisted suicide poses to disabled people. Baroness Grey-Thompson brought her political expertise and unique perspective to SPUC supporters at a recent SPUC meeting in Middlesbrough.
Loud and clear
If Kim Leadbeater’s bill is passed into law, those MPs who supported it, cannot claim, when they eventually witness the misery and degradation this would bring, that they were unaware of the consequences of their action. They are hearing it loud and clear now.
Whatever the outcome on 20th June 2025, we have, in England and Wales, seen a level of honesty and realism about the practice of assisted suicide from key national figures and professional bodies, which should be applauded. Win or lose this vital vote, no one will be able to say ‘we didn’t know’. The writing is on the wall.
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