Why cancer patient is praying assisted dying bill passes major vote
On Friday, the social fabric of England and Wales might be changed forever.
MPs are set to vote on the assisted dying bill and supporters are confident that they have the numbers to win.
But the hugely controversial legislation polarises opinion. Communities remain divided, and medical colleagues can't agree.
Three royal colleges have withdrawn support for the bill in its current form. They want more time to be given for further scrutiny of the legislation.
Frank Sutton does not have time. When we went to Frank's home in East Dulwich, London, last November to watch the vote unfold she already had terminal liver disease and cancer.
As the vote was passed with a majority of 55, Frank broke down in tears and said: "Finally, I can die in peace."
Frank is unlikely to live long enough to see assisted dying introduced in England and Wales. If the legislation passes, it will be introduced in four years.
Frank now suffers from diabetes and fibromyalgia.
She said: "On top of everything I've got, to start developing more comorbidities, I have a massive thought in my head, which I live with every day, which is, is my body - am I on the road to the end? You know, is my body just giving up?
"I mean, I was taking morphine anyway for pain, but now I'm living on morphine, and that's not a life that you want."
But even as MPs prepare to vote, many important questions remain over who will take responsibility for determining a patient's mental capacity and their prognosis. The Royal College of Psychiatrists said it was approaching Friday "with trepidation".
Dr Annabel Price, the RCPsych's lead on assisted dying, told Sky News: "If this bill as it stands proceeds through the rest of the parliamentary process, we as psychiatrists are left in a situation where there are so many unknowns about what is expected of us, about what patients can expect and about the safety of the process.
"We will continue to engage and there may be opportunities for reconsideration at further points in the bill. But yes, I approach this professionally with trepidation."
The Royal College of GPs says the assisted dying process should happen outside of general practice.
Dr Susi Caesar is in favour of the bill being passed and feels it is okay for the medical community to be so divided on the issue.
She said: "I think people have the right to make their own choices and absolutely I would not want to see anybody forced into being part of this process who didn't. Our current system is broken and this law would go a long way towards fixing it, at least for a certain group of people."
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But the Royal Colleges of Physicians (RCP) also has reservations about the bill in its current form.
It says it would be hard for a panel of experts who have no connection to a patient requesting an assisted death to determine if the person is being coerced or has mental capacity.
Dr John Dean, clinical vice president at the RCP has concerns, saying: "Currently decisions clearly are made by patients but agreed by single doctors and then the social worker and psychiatrists are not meeting the patient and those that have been caring for them.
"This has to be done in keeping with modern clinical practice which is complex decisions made with patients and families by teams."
But for patients like Frank, these concerns have not changed her mind.
She said: "I'm praying for Friday that it still goes through because, like I said, it's not going to happen in my lifetime, but the thought that people like me who still try to look nice, who still tried to have a life and everything, that they can just have some peace of mind and they can have a weight lifted off their shoulders knowing that they're going to be able to do it peacefully with their family."
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The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
UK ‘behind curve' on assisted dying among progressive nations, says Kim Leadbeater
The UK is 'behind the curve' on assisted dying among progressive nations, the bill's sponsor Kim Leadbeater has said on the eve of one of the most consequential votes for social change in England and Wales. The Labour MP told the Guardian that the circumstances may never be right again to pass such a bill, which would legalise assisted dying in England and Wales for those terminally ill with less than six months to live, subject to approval by two doctors and a panel of experts. Her intervention came amid more warnings about the safeguards in the bill, including from the Royal College of Psychiatrists and disability activists – who will protest outside parliament on Friday at the final vote in the Commons. Opponents believe the bill will not sufficiently protect those with mental illness or disability or from coercion by abusers. On Thursday, another leading Labour MP, Dan Carden, told the Guardian he would vote against the bill and the Conservative leader, Kemi Badenoch, urged her MPs to oppose it. Keir Starmer has reiterated his own support for the bill – but on Thursday night there was no firm commitment from No 10 that the prime minister would be present to vote. 'We are behind the curve,' Leadbeater told the Guardian. 'We've got the law going through the Isle of Man. We've got Jersey. We've got France. We've got various American states, Colorado recently. 'Other countries are looking at us and saying, goodness me, why are you not doing what is essentially the right thing to do? And if we don't do it now, we could be looking at another 10 years. We cannot put families through another 10 years of that.' The MP for Spen Valley said circumstances may never allow such a change for another generation – given the numbers of progressive MPs in the parliament. 'This is surely everything modern parliamentarians should believe in: big societal change for the people that need it,' she said. 'Now is the time.' Should the bill pass, Leadbeater said it would be accessible to those with a terminal illness by the end of the parliament – with a four-year implementation period. 'I will certainly be putting pressure on to commence sooner than that if it can be done safely and effectively,' she said 'But ultimately it's about it being safe rather than rushing it through.' At least 19 MPs have publicly said they will switch sides from either abstaining or backing the bill to voting against. Since the bill was last voted on, there has been a major change to the legislation – the removal of a high court judge to sign off each case, replaced by a panel of experts including a psychiatrist, a social worker and senior lawyer. Proponents of the bill claimed they were confident it will pass again on Friday, having previously passed with a majority of 55. But further high-profile switchers or even significant interventions in the chamber on Friday could be critical and those who oppose the bill said they believe there was still significant traffic in their direction. Campaigners on both sides said that MPs would be going to extraordinary lengths to make the vote – returning from hospital bedsides and long-haul trips. Carden, who leads the Blue Labour group of MPs, told the Guardian he would vote against, having previously abstained. 'Legalising assisted suicide will normalise the choice of death over life, care, respect and love,' the MP for Liverpool Walton said. 'I draw on my own family experience, caring for my dad who died from lung cancer three years ago. 'I genuinely fear the legislation will take us in the wrong direction. The values of family, social bonds, responsibilities, time and community will be diminished, with isolation, atomisation and individualism winning again.' Those who have switched from previously supporting the bill to voting against include the Conservative former minister George Freeman, the Lib Dem work and pensions spokesperson, Steve Darling, and Labour MPs Karl Turner, Kanishka Narayan and Jonathan Hinder. But there have been some who have moved to vote in favour, including the Ipswich Labour MP Jack Abbott, who voted against in November but switched to support having been on the bill's scrutiny committee, saying he was now convinced the safeguards were robust. A YouGov poll on the eve of the vote found support for assisted dying has robust support among the UK public – 75% believe that assisted dying should in principle be legal in some form in the UK, compared to 14% opposed. But there are significant divisions across different sections of society. In polling for the Muslim Council of Britain, British Muslims were overwhelmingly likely to oppose the bill. The poll found 70% of respondents said that if their local MP were to vote for the assisted suicide bill, it would make them less likely to vote for them at the next election. Badenoch urged Conservative MPs to vote against the bill, though it remains a free vote. 'I'm somebody who has been previously supportive of assisted suicide,' she said. 'This bill is a bad bill. It is not going to deliver. It has not been done properly. 'This is not how we should put through legislation like this. I don't believe that the NHS and other services are ready to carry out assisted suicide, so I'll be voting no, and I hope as many Conservative MPs as possible will be supporting me in that.' The Royal College of Psychiatrists issued another warning ahead of the vote, saying there were 'too many unanswered questions about the safeguarding of people with mental illness'. Should the bill pass on Friday, it will then go to the House of Lords. However, it is not expected peers will block its progress once the Commons has passed the bill, though it may be amended. The Labour peer Luciana Berger urged MPs to vote against the bill if they were unsure about safeguards, rather than assume further changes would be made in the Lords. 'Elected MPs should be clear that as it is a [private members bill], amendments are likely to be limited,' she posted on X. 'MPs must be satisfied that the Bill in front of them on Friday is fit for purpose.' The Labour peer Charlie Falconer is likely to take charge of the bill in the House of Lords. Falconer had submitted his own bill to the Lords prior to Leadbeater's – though he withdrew it when her bill was put to the Commons. Proponents of the bill hope it would receive royal assent by October, but there will be a four-year implementation period to allow the NHS, Department of Health and Social Care and the Ministry of Justice to develop procedures and guidance. It is – as yet – unclear if the procedure would be available on the NHS or free at the point of use.
BBC News
an hour ago
- BBC News
Government urged to help save Hinckley hospital frontage
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The Guardian
2 hours ago
- The Guardian
Assisted dying: supporters and opponents of bill on hopes and fears ahead of crucial vote
Ever since Pamela Fisher was diagnosed with terminal breast cancer, the fear of dying in pain and discomfort has been keeping her awake at night. 'I don't want to die, not now. I love life and I want to live. But that said, I live in terror at the prospect of how my final weeks of life could turn out,' the 64-year-old said. 'I know that even with the best palliative care available, there are limits to what can be done. It's a dead weight of fear I carry around with me.' Fisher, a former academic and authorised Church of England preacher, is a strong supporter of the assisted dying bill which MPs will debate in a crucial vote on Friday – she hopes it will pass, and come into force in enough time to give her the option of an assisted death when the time comes. Although cancer has now spread to her bones, which makes walking difficult, she has travelled from her home in Huddersfield to join the planned demonstration outside parliament for the bill's third reading. 'Despite all my disabilities and pain, I'll be there until the end, until the vote comes through,' she said. 'I'm hanging all my hopes on it. It would be quite devastating if it is defeated.' Her views have led to some tense exchanges with other members of the church, whose leaders have spoken out against the legislation – the Bishop of London said it may mean vulnerable people are compelled to hasten their death. 'I can't reconcile Christian compassion with the status quo that obliges people to a drawn out process of dying in pain when this is against their will and they have the capacity to choose,' Fisher said. 'People use this concept of the sanctity of life which is completely central to Christian teaching. But I reject the assumption that the sanctity of life requires telling terminally ill people to undergo a painful death when they don't want to.' Most debates in her congregation about the subject have been civilised, she said, although she sometimes feel as if she's marginalised as a terminal cancer patient. 'It's like you're not taken as seriously – people think 'well she would say that, wouldn't she?',' she said. On the other side of the debate, there are people alarmed the legislation could lead to abuse, coercion or people dying earlier than needed, particularly in cases of misdiagnosis and inaccurate prognosis. Peter Sefton-Williams, 72, was diagnosed with suspected motor neurone disease by two neurologists in January 2024, and joined Dignitas after deciding he wanted to opt for an assisted death. 'I was so completely shocked. I did very much think about ending my life because I live on my own and I'm not married, and motor neurone disease is terrible, you can't swallow, you can't speak,' he said. His condition didn't deteriorate and then, nine months later, his diagnosis was changed to a rare, non-terminal condition called multifocal motor neuropathy. 'If assisted dying had been available to me, it's quite possible I would have opted for that. I mean, I had two of the country's senior specialists confirm I had motor neurone disease. I was in a state of great despair,' he said. 'People would have said, well, he died with dignity and so on. Except it would have been an error. It would have been a mistake. I would have died needlessly.' Along with misdiagnoses, the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Terminal Illness reported that the accuracy of predictions of how long someone has left to live can range from 78% to 23%, and in cases involving less understood conditions, such as motor neurone disease, it can be impossible. 'There are lots and lots of cases where people have lived very fruitful, happy lives for much longer than they were expected to,' Sefton-Williams said. 'I was completely traumatised by the whole experience, the misdiagnosis and the implications of that. People have to accept that there will be cases where doctors get it wrong. And that needs to be discussed.' Shafaq Sikandar, 39, has stage four breast cancer and is a keen supporter of the bill. 'It is not because I'm thinking about assisted dying,' she said. 'I might not need it, but what I would like to know is that if and when that happens, that I have a choice. It's a choice not to suffer, to be able to die at home with my loved ones.' She is a professor of sensory neurophysiology, specialising in people's experiences of chronic pain, so knows more than most how pain works, and the scientific limitations of measuring it. 'We don't currently have the appropriate tools to really assess someone's comfort when they're past the point of being able to articulate how they're feeling,' she said. 'I am particularly worried about experiencing pain at any point in my life, including at the end of it. Pain is often described as an erosion of dignity and it really does strip away everything that makes life worth living.' She said she understands the complexity of the bill, and the need to get the safeguarding right. 'But it's still a case of listening to the voice of patients and understanding they want to have a choice in their treatment,' she said. 'When we think about death we also need to think about the meaning of life and I think a lot of that boils down to living as well as you can until that very last breath.'
