The first vote on MP Kim Leadbeater’s proposed assisted suicide bill will take place on 29 November. SPUC has urged people opposed to the “dangerous and irresponsible” proposal to lobby their MPs with all haste.

Leadbeater’s Private Member’s Bill will have its first vote in the House of Commons on 29 November, it has been announced. The first reading takes place next week.

The details of the bill are uncertain, but it would likely grant terminally ill people in England and Wales a “right” to state-sanctioned euthanasia and/or assisted suicide – the definition of “terminal” illness is unclear.

Cardinal Vincent Nichols, the Archbishop of Westminster, has warned that the bill, if passed, “will bring great fear and trepidation to many, especially those who have vulnerabilities and those living with disabilities”.

In a letter that will be read to churchgoers this weekend, Cardinal Nichols urged UK Catholics to oppose the bill by lobbying MPs. “Once assisted suicide is approved by the law, a key protection of human life falls away”, he said. “Be careful what you wish for; the right to die can become a duty to die…

“Assurances will be given that the proposed safeguards are firm and reliable. Rarely has this been the case.”

At SPUC’s recent one-day conferences in London and Glasgow, Alex Schadenberg, the Executive Director of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition, urged delegates not to give doctors the right “to kill you”.

Mr Schadenberg cited the frightening example of Canada, where over 15,000 people were killed by state-sanctioned assisted suicide in 2023 alone.

Palliative care doctors overwhelmingly oppose assisted suicide

Dr Gordon Macdonald, of Care Not Killing, which opposes assisted suicide, said: “I would strongly urge the government to focus on fixing our broken palliative care system that sees up to one in four Brits who would benefit from this type of care being unable to access it, rather than discussing again this dangerous and ideological policy.”

Many palliative care experts have voiced their horror at prospective assisted suicide legislation. Dr Amy Profitt, former president of the Association for Palliative Medicine of Great Britain and Ireland (APM), recently warned that such laws are “not just fundamentally flawed – but downright dangerous”.

Dr Matthew Doré, the honorary secretary at the APM, warned a Westminster inquiry in 2023 that legalising assisted suicide would be “bonkers… We are against this in healthcare, and certainly in palliative care.”

In a 2020 position statement, the APM, representing over 1,200 palliative medicine doctors, said: “The APM opposes any change in the law to license doctors to supply or administer lethal drugs to a patient to enable them to take their own life.

“The majority (85%) of our membership do not support a change in the law, and a similar percentage would refuse to participate in assisted suicide or administer euthanasia.”

Wes Streeting, the Secretary of State for Health & Social Care, also expressed his concern that legalising assisted suicide in the UK will lead patients to “take their own life thinking they were a burden on others”.

He continued: “I do not think that palliative care, end-of-life care in this country is in a condition yet where we are giving people the freedom to choose, without being coerced by the lack of support available.”

“A grave threat to vulnerable people”

Daniel Frampton, SPUC’s Editorial Officer, said: “Leadbeater’s bill poses a grave threat to vulnerable people around the UK. While the scope of the proposal might seem limited, such legislation will likely only be the start, as we have seen in Canada.

“Once assisted suicide is permitted, the ethic of medicine, which is to care and not kill, will be changed forever. State-sanctioned death is even recommended in some quarters as a means to save health services money and free up hospital beds. This utilitarian view dehumanises patients and ultimately seeks to kill them.

“While this proposed law is framed as a matter of ‘choice’, evidence from counties where these methods of killing are lawful shows that patients often choose death because they don’t want to be a burden or because they fear poor treatment – this is no choice at all.

“SPUC urges its supporters to raise awareness about this dangerous and irresponsible bill. Lobby your MP now before it is too late.”

TAKE ACTION: Lobby your MP NOW

SPUC encourages supporters and all people opposed to assisted suicide to lobby their MP now, asking them to oppose Leadbeater’s assisted suicide bill.

Over half of MPs are new to Parliament and have not voted on this issue before. Many have not even thought about it, and they will be getting barrages of messages from the other side – we must make sure our voice is heard.

A tool is available on our website to help you do this. Enter your postcode to find out who your MP is, write your message, and press send.

SPUC is not providing a template text at this stage, as politicians appreciate genuine, heartfelt messages over copied-and-pasted content. MPs soon recognise if they are receiving identical communications copied and pasted from templates or campaign websites.

For a terrifying insight into the threat that assisted suicide poses to people with disability, watch Liz Carr’s documentary Better Off Dead? – available to watch on the BBC’s iPlayer.

SPUC has also compiled stories of ordinary people opposed to assisted suicide, which you can access here for free online.