About the Bill
On 29th November 2024, MPs voted by 330 to 275 to give Kim Leadbeater MP’s the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill a second reading.
The Bill is now receiving line by line scrutiny by a Committee of MPs. This will be followed by Report stage, with MPs given another chance to vote at Third Reading. This will likely take place in April.
What can we do now?
While the result in November was disappointing, the fight is far from over. Many MPs have already said that they could change their vote if they are not satisfied with the details of this bill. We must now is to lobby MPs to reject the Bill at Third Reading. You can do this by:
Submitting evidence to the committee by 20th January
Writing to your MP
See below for tools and guidance to help you take these actions effectively.
Submit Evidence to the Committee
An immediate task is to submit evidence to the Committee examining the bill. You should submit your evidence by 20th January (as this is when the committee will start taking oral evidence) for it to stand a real chance of being seen and considered.
Please download our guide to submitting evidence here.
Write to Your MP
Please use our tool to contact your MP, asking them to oppose Kim Leadbeater’s assisted suicide bill.
You can find out how your MP voted on the 29th at the second reading at this link
We are not providing a template text at this stage, as politicians appreciate genuine, heartfelt messages over copied-and-pasted content. Politicians soon recognise if they are receiving identical communications copied and pasted from templates or campaign websites.
Write about your own concerns about assisted suicide. Do you have a disability that will make you vulnerable? Or have family members you’d be worried about? You can also use other people’s stories, from our stories booklet.
Remember that many MPs who might vote against assisted suicide will not be pro-life on abortion. It would therefore be prudent to only talk about this issue on this occasion. Emphasising the threat to the vulnerable is more likely to resonate with MPs than religious arguments.
Please send a message to your MPs telling them why you do not want assisted suicide to be legalised.
1
Enter your postcode in the box below
Once you have entered your postcode, the tool will bring up your local MP and the form below will automatically be filled with their contact details.
2
Write your message to your MP
You can now enter your message to your MP in the ‘Message’ box below. If you are not sure what to write, please read our guides above for assistance.
3
Send E-mail
Once you have written your e-mail message and are ready to send it to your MP, simply click to select how you would like to send it. You have two options: option 1 allows you to send the e-mail directly from your own e-mail address and option 2 allows SPUC to send the e-mail on your behalf. MPs prefer to received personal e-mail from their constituents so we encourage you to select the first option. This will open up your e-mail and all the information (including your message) will be automatically added to your e-mail, ready for you to press send.
Order Leaflets
We prepared leaflets you can share in your churches or community centres. If you would like to order them, please follow the link below.
Get the Briefing
A briefing on the private member’s bill introduced by Kim Leadbeater MP.
Watch the Webinar: How to stop assisted suicide
Webinar
Watch Dr. Dominic Whitehouse’s Webinar: The Case Against Assisted Suicide and How to Stop It
Dr. Dominic Whitehouse is a palliative care consultant. He recently toured the UK speaking at three major meetings, explaining why the legalisation of assisted suicide would be harmful to doctors, patients and society. Click below to view Dr Whitehouse’s talk at the SPUC webinar
Free 45 minute webinar
Essential knowledge to impact upcoming UK legislation
Assisted suicide is not a solution to pain
Good palliative care should ensure that pain is controlled well, and some people suffer horrible deaths due to adverse effects of experimental drugs used for assisted suicide in other countries.
Where assisted suicide is legal, one reason people choose to die is because they feel they are a burden on others.
People with disabilities and the terminally ill will particularly fear the passing of this law which could make them feel pressured to end their lives.
Most doctors remain opposed to assisted suicide
The majority of doctors in the UK remain opposed to the introduction of assisted dying. This opposition is strongest amongst doctors who work most closely with dying patients.
Earlier this year, SPUC reported on a recent Association of Palliative Medicine (APM) survey that found such doctors were “concerned” that a focus on “traumatic” and “negative” patient cases was being used to manipulate the British public into supporting assisted suicide.
Lives Worth Living: Visit Our Assisted Suicide Campaign Page
SPUC upholds the right to life from conception until natural death, and has played a part in resisting many attempts both in Parliament and in the courts to change the law on assisted suicide.
Please visit the the page to access free resources and find out how you can join our campaign.
Related Articles
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MPs voting for assisted suicide would be “foolish” to ignore palliative care concerns, says health committee chair
Liberal Democrats MP Layla Moran, the chair of the Health and Social Care Committee, says it would be “foolish” to ignore the concerns of palliative care doctors about assisted suicide, though she still supports Kim Leadbeater’s draft bill. Moran said it would be “foolish” to ignore the warnings of palliative…
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Pope Francis calls out abortion and assisted suicide in first 2025 homily
Pope Francis called on people around the world to reject abortion and assisted suicide in his New Year message at the Vatican. At New Year’s Day Mass in St Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican, Pope Francis called on all people to “respect the dignity of human life from conception to…
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MPs may withdraw support from assisted suicide bill over coercion concerns
At least 30 MPs who voted for Kim Leadbeater’s assisted suicide bill are prepared to withdraw their support for the proposed law because they are concerned about coercion and the role of doctors in suggesting assisted suicide to patients. After a “disappointing” first vote in favour of the Leadbeater Bill,…
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Over 15,000 assisted suicides in Canada in 2023, a “clear warning” to UK
State-sanctioned assisted suicides in Canada reached a record high, with over 15,000 such deaths recorded in 2023. SPUC says that Canada offers a “clear warning” of where the UK is heading if the Leadbeater Bill, which passed a first vote last month, is approved. 15,343 people were killed by Medical…
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“Significant” victory as Welsh Parliament rejects assisted suicide motion in Senedd
Senedd members have rejected a non-binding motion supporting an assisted suicide law. SPUC has called the result a “significant” victory for vulnerable people who would be targeted by such a law.
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Health Secretary expected to vote against assisted suicide
Health Secretary Wes Streeting says he will vote against fellow Labour MP Kim Leadbeater’s assisted suicide bill because he is concerned about the state of palliative care in the UK.
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Assisted Suicide: A threat to the vulnerable?
Why do people support a change in the law on assisted suicide? According to Professor David Albert Jones, director of the Anscombe Centre for Bioethics in Oxford, the most common reasons are; avoiding a bad death involving pain, allowing choice, and to provide safeguards for something which is already happening.
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Keir Starmer refused to prosecute assisted suicide case as it wasn’t in “public interest”
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer “spared” a doctor who was arrested for assisting in the death of a man in 2009.