Left image – Wikimedia Commons: Official portrait of Layla Moran MP crop 1
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 care doctors about the impact that assisted suicide will have on vulnerable patients, fears “precipitated” by the Leadbeater Bill.
However, Moran added that she’s “always agreed with the principle” of assisted suicide, saying, “I want to see an assisted dying bill pass.”
Moran also said she disagreed with some MPs fears about allowing medics to suggest assisted suicide to patients.
“When I speak to doctors, they feel really strongly that if this is a course of treatment, which is a medicalised thing, then it would be wrong to not advise patients and families that this is an option”, Moran stated.
Moran voted for the Leadbeater Bill at its second reading, approved 330 to 275 by MPs on 29 November. The draft law will now be scrutinised by a committee of MPs who may suggest amendments, and this will be voted on at a third reading at the end of April.
Up to 30 MPs have already suggested that they might withdraw their support for the Bill over concerns about coercion and medics being allowed to suggest assisted suicide to patients.
MPs must reject Leadbeater Bill, says SPUC
Daniel Frampton, SPUC Editorial Officer, said: “While Moran says that MPs should listen to the warnings of palliative care experts, she also makes it clear that legalising assisted suicide is her chief priority – but at what cost?
“If it took an assisted suicide bill to expose the dire state of palliative care in the UK, which is a scandal itself, this already reflects poorly on the management of health services. It would be an even greater disgrace to impose assisted suicide at a time when end-of-life care is in crisis, as is now almost universally recognised.
“It is alarming that so many MPs appear determined to legalise assisted suicide at whatever cost to vulnerable people, and that cost will surely be extreme, as we’ve seen in Canada and elsewhere. The only safe and responsible action to take here is to reject the Leadbeater Bill outright.”
“Crisis” in palliative care
Health Secretary Wes Streeting voted against the Leadbeater Bill because he was concerned about palliative care.
“I do not think that palliative care, end-of-life care in this country is in a condition yet where we are giving people the freedom to choose, without being coerced by the lack of support available”, Streeting said last year.
UK palliative care doctors have overwhelmingly condemned assisted suicide. Before the second reading of the Leadbeater Bill, a group of medics wrote an open letter to Leadbeater slamming the proposed law as a “cheaper solution” to end-of-life care.
A Marie Curie study, published last year, found that nearly half (49%) of bereaved respondents were unhappy with the end-of-life care that a family member received, and one in eight made an official complaint, underscoring a “crisis” in palliative care.
Meanwhile, it was announced in December that over 15,000 Canadians were killed by assisted suicide in 2023, meaning that Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) now accounts for almost one in 20 deaths in Canada.
SPUC said it sends “a clear warning to the UK” about “the mortal threat posed by these laws”.
