Left image – Wikimedia Commons: Official portrait of Kit Malthouse crop 2
MP Kit Malthouse has attempted to censor the backlash after an assisted suicide committee rejected an amendment that would have stopped doctors from suggesting suicide to people with Down’s syndrome.
On 4 March, an MP committee currently reviewing Kim Leadbeater’s assisted suicide bill voted 13 to 8 against an amendment that would have protected people with Down’s syndrome from being coerced into ending their lives.
The amendment was supported by 50 groups, including Down’s Syndrome UK, the National Down’s Syndrome Policy Group, and Down’s Syndrome Scotland.
Following the vote, MP Kit Malthouse made a point of order, asking if “measures” could be taken against individuals or groups who “misrepresent” the committee and its decision not to protect vulnerable people.
“Somebody could in regards to the amendment in to regard to people with Down Syndrome, imply, or state on social media that the committee has refused to look at accommodations for people with Down Syndrome and therefore would be disregarding welfare under the bill”, said Mr Malthouse.
He was told that he should consult the House, as “what people say outside of the Committee is beyond… [its] jurisdiction”.
Danny Kruger MP added that it wasn’t the job of the Committee to “police social media… [And] the Committee did just choose to reject an amendment that would have required the Government to put into the Bill the protections specified by the Down’s syndrome community…
“I will be making that point, but I undertake to do so accurately and fairly.”
The Down’s syndrome group Don’t Screen Us Out posted the following on X:
The Committee also rejected amendments to prevent doctors from suggesting assisted suicide to people with autism and learning difficulties, as well as children aged 16 to 17. Earlier in the week, an amendment to protect people with anorexia was also rejected.
Last month, Mr Kruger warned the Committee that “people with learning disabilities would be especially vulnerable under an assisted suicide law, since there is already a fundamental assumption that the lives of people with Down’s syndrome ‘are worth less than others’.”
The Leadbeater Bill proposes to legalise assisted suicide for terminally ill adults said to have just six months to live. It was approved by MPs at the Second Reading last year, and another vote will follow following the Committee Stage.
Earlier this year, two American doctors told the Committee that thinking oneself a “burden” was enough reason for assisted suicide. Dr. Ryan Spielvogel, senior medical director for aid in dying services in California, also said it should be a “felony” for friends and family to “interfere with a patient’s right to make this choice”.
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