The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill was introduced by Labour MP Kim Leadbeater on 16 October 2024 and published on 11 November. The Bill seeks to amend the Suicide Act 1961 to allow doctors to supply terminally ill adults with only six months to live with lethal drugs to end their own lives. It will be debated by MPs on 29 November 2024.

Here are ten reasons why MPs should vote against the Bill.

1. The Bill’s definition of terminal illness is broad and could include chronic conditions such as diabetes and even anorexia.

2. The safeguards in the Bill rely on the opinion of two doctors that a patient has only six months to live, and is mentally capable of making a clear, settled decision to end their life that is free from coercion or undue pressure. The law would allow doctors to raise the issue of assisted suicide. This could call into question the objectivity of their judgement as well as potentially act as an undue influence on vulnerable patients.

3. An accurate assessment of life expectancy is also very difficult, and many people outlive a six-month prognosis. Research shows that errors in diagnosis for severe, life-threatening conditions can be as high as 20%.

4. Studies show that reliance on a doctor’s impression of a patient’s state of mind is of questionable value. Studies on the relationship between depression and the wish for a hastened death show that doctors often fail to recognise depression in very ill patients.

5. The Bill requires a judge to review all requests for assisted suicide. This idea has been heavily criticised by the former President of the Family Courts as contrary to the role of judges and unrealistic. If the rate of assisted deaths in Canada or the Netherlands occurred in England and Wales, the courts could not cope. Judges would have to rubber stamp requests, or the system would break down.

6. Conscience protection for doctors is not good. Objecting doctors would be forced to facilitate assisted suicide by referring a patient to a doctor who will carry out the process. This threatens to violate a doctor’s right to freedom of conscience protected by the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).

7. Experience shows that assisted suicide, once legalised, undermines the provision of palliative care. Caring for the very sick and the elderly is costly. It could come to be seen as a means of reducing NHS spending.

8. In every country where assisted suicide has been introduced, safeguards are quickly downgraded or removed, threatening the lives of the vulnerable. In Canada, disabled people have ended their lives because of their economic conditions. In Belgium and the Netherlands, disabled children and dementia patients who did not ask to die have been euthanised. 

9. Supporters of the Bill claim that it is “the strongest most robust piece of legislation on this issue in the world”. However, its safeguards cannot guarantee that people will not be subject to coercion and abuse. Despite its broad eligibility criteria, some campaigners are already calling for them to be expanded even further.

10. The Bill, if passed, would further enable a suicide culture and undermine prevention efforts at a time when suicide rates are rising in the UK. Research suggests that suicide increases in nations where assisted suicide has been legalised.

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.