SPUC has warned that MP Kim Leadbeater’s assisted suicide bill could be expanded within just five years, and veterans suffering from PTSD could be threatened, as has already happened in Canada.

SPUC’s Daniel Frampton warns Britain’s war veterans could be targeted by a proposed assisted suicide bill that has a built-in review period set to take place within five years.

The obligatory review of Labour MP Kim Leadbeater’s assisted suicide bill would take place within five years, should it be passed, leaving the door open to its expansion, as has occurred in Canada and other jurisdictions.

“We’ve already seen Canadian veterans recommended assisted suicide as a remedy for their PTSD”, said Dr Frampton, Editorial Officer at SPUC. “Ex-servicemen deserve far better than to be betrayed by their country in this way, yet this may also happen in the UK if we follow the same track as Canada.”

“Saving Private Ryan takes on different, wholly sinister meaning in the context of assisted suicide”, he added.

Canadian veterans offered assisted suicide

Kelsi Sheren, a veteran of the war in Afghanistan, returned to Canada with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after seeing comrades blown up by improvised explosive devices (IEDs). “That was my first exposure to watching someone die. And that was my first exposure to having to clean up what was left of someone”, she told the Daily Mail.

She was disgusted to learn later that at least a dozen veterans like herself were offered Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD).

“When you take people who were willing to put their lives on the line for you, for your safety, then you have the audacity to tell them it’s better if you just die... it is one of the most disgusting things”, she said.

“It’s unacceptable, and it is one of the most infuriating things to come down from the Canadian administration in the last decade.”

One veteran was even recommended MAiD during a telephone call with the Veteran Affairs Canada hotline. He and his family were reportedly left feeling deeply disturbed and betrayed by the unprompted suggestion.

The “slippery slope” is real

Dr Frampton said: “While the Leadbeater Bill would legalise assisted suicide for terminally ill adults with six months to live, it could easily be expanded to kill citizens suffering from depression and other mental health issues. The ‘slippery slope’ is real, and we see it most clearly in Canada.

“British veterans and other groups could be targeted in the near future if assisted suicide is permitted. Once suicide is treated as a so-called cure for suffering in one instance, it may soon be applied in other ‘problem’ cases.

“As well as undermining suicide prevention, this unwise and dangerous Bill has the potential to betray British veterans who served their country honourably and bravely. Many have already paid a heavy price, having seen and experienced horrific sights – many came back without limbs. We owe it to these men and women to give them back their lives, not take them away.

“Mission creep in the UK, if assisted suicide is legalised, could mean that Tommy Atkins faces another threat to his life, not from the Taliban in Kandahar but from his own people in Whitehall. We cannot allow this to happen. As the poet Rudyard Kipling wrote over a hundred years ago, ‘You bet that Tommy sees.’”

A King’s College London study, conducted on behalf of the UK’s Office for Veterans’ Affairs (OVA), recently reported that one in three active service members and veterans have mental disorders, including PTSD, which is on the rise in Britain.

Around 280,000 UK servicemen and women served in Iraq and Afghanistan between 2001 and 2014. Over 600 military personnel were killed, and thousands more injured during deployment.

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.