Left to right – Wikimedia Commons: Daniel Francis MP, Official portrait of Naz Shah MP crop 2, 2024, Official portrait of Florence Eshalomi MP crop 2, 2024, Jess Asato MP portrait cropped
Westminster MPs have pushed back against Kim Leadbeater’s assisted suicide bill in a House of Commons debate that saw many slam the proposed law as irresponsible and dangerous. The debate will continue next month.
On Friday 16 May, Westminster MPs debated Leadbeater’s bill in the House of Commons for the first time since it passed at Second Reading by 330 votes to 275. The debate will continue on 13 June when MPs will have a final vote on the proposed legislation.
Today, an amendment to ensure “no person” has to participate in the assisted suicide process was passed without needing an MP vote.
However, MPs voted to reject an amendment to prevent employers from stopping their workers from offering assisted suicide services.
Before today’s debate ran out of time, Labour’s Jess Asato, a vocal critic of the bill, complained that several MPs seeking amendments to the bill did not have a chance to speak.
“How can we call that a debate when we haven’t even heard why they are proposing amendments in the first place?” she said.
While Leadbeater was present earlier in the day, Conservative MP Simon Hoare complained that she was not in the chamber later to respond to amendments or hear the debate.
“Is it not a discourtesy to the House and those who have spent some considerable time working on amendments on both sides of the argument, for her not to be here, to hear what they are advocating?” Hoare said.
Fears about coercion and absence of safeguards remain
During the debate, fears about coercion and vulnerable people being targeted by assisted suicide dominated the debate, which saw many MPs condemn Leadbeater’s bill as being dangerous.
MP Diane Abbott said that, if a patient were suggested assisted suicide doctor, “far too many people” would “feel that they are being steered in that direction”.
Labour MP Meg Hillier said that current bill “presents a serious risk that terminally-ill patients already highly vulnerable will feel pressured into ending their lives”.
Conservative MP Caroline Johnson, who is a doctor, agreed with Hillier. “If a doctor tells somebody, or gives any information, about assisted dying, it is quite reasonable for that person to think that either the doctor is suggesting that they should take part in this process, or even they’re hinting their death is going to be a dreadful one and trying to be kind to them.”
Also speaking against the bill, Labour MP Florence Eshalomi said that she had “come to the conclusion that, instead of giving the universal right to dignity and death, it [the bill] will reinforce the health inequalities that deprive so many from our vulnerable communities of that dignity in life”.
Conservative MP Rebecca Paul also emphasised the “momentous” nature of the bill from which there would be “no going back…
“We have moved from a proposal to provide a humane end to someone’s pain when it can’t be relieved in the last months of their life to providing an assisted death service to those who choose it for any reason, even if the pain can be alleviated by palliative care. But this approach comes with a cost to others – family, clinicians and broader society.”
Two Labour MPs announced that they will now vote against the bill at Third Reading, one having previously voted for it, while the other abstained. Following today’s debate, Conservative MP Tom Tugendhat posted the following on X:
If you’re reading this and haven’t yet donated to SPUC, please consider helping now. Thank You!
