Left image – Wikimedia Commons: Miro Griffiths photograph 2023
A disability expert has condemned a “nonsensical” assisted suicide bill that would further discriminate against disabled people. “I am overwhelmingly against the principle of and the clauses set out in the Bill… It coalesces with the systemic injustices faced by the disabled people’s communities in the UK”, said Dr Miro Griffiths.
Dr Griffiths was one of the few disability experts to appear before the ongoing committee hearing into Labour MP Kim Leadbeater’s Bill that would legalise assisted suicide for terminally ill adults in England and Wales.
During a hearing last week, Dr Griffiths, who uses a power wheelchair, condemned the Leadbeater Bill’s “nonsensical division between a terminal illness and what constitutes being a disabled person…
“Section 6 of the Equality Act 2010 states that a disabled person is somebody who has a ‘physical or mental impairment’ and the impairment ‘has a substantial and long-term adverse effect’ on their ‘ability to carry out… day-to-day activities’.
“If you have a terminal illness, it is likely that you will be defined within the terms of what is outlined in Section 6, so it is a fundamental flaw, because disabled people will be incorporated within this.”
“Deep concerns around issues of coercion”
Dr Griffiths, co-director of the Centre for Disability Studies at the University of Leeds, also warned that “the coercion principles outlined in the Bill are incredibly weak in terms of the scrutinising and the process of how you judge whether coercion has taken place…
“There are some deep concerns around issues of coercion that are not satisfied within the Bill… [about] how it will affect the relationship between medical practitioners and disabled people’s communities.”
Citing “a lack of advocacy services available to disabled people”, Dr Griffiths added that “the infrastructure to support [disabled] people either to respond to coercion, or to understand that they do not have to be in that position in the first place, is non-existent”.
Dr Griffiths pointed out that experts like himself “are often left out of the discourse around disability policy”, leading to a further lack of scrutiny.
“An unforgivable imposition on disabled people”, says SPUC
Daniel Frampton, SPUC’s Editorial Officer, said: “The disregard of the dangers that assisted suicide laws pose to disabled people, primarily through coercion, is reason enough to reject the Leadbeater Bill.
“It’s clear that assisted suicide, if legalised in the UK, is a disaster waiting to happen. MPs have a duty to protect their constituents and fellow citizens, many of whom are disabled. We must all listen to the warnings of Dr Griffiths who knows what he’s talking about.
“The mortal threat of coercion is always present in assisted suicide bills. The only true safeguard against it is not to legalise it in the first place. The Leadbeater Bill is an unforgivable imposition on disabled people who deserve care, not an early and needless death.”
