Assisted dying Bills aim to ‘fix problem', says ex-MP whose father took own life
Paul Blomfield, who served as a Labour MP for Sheffield, said he spoke to his father Harry on the phone – and the next day he was told the 87-year-old had been found dead.
He said that while his father had been diagnosed with terminal lung cancer, it 'hadn't crossed my mind' he would end his life.
But he said the lack of assisted dying laws meant his father 'died alone and he died earlier than he would have done'.
Speaking at a fringe event organised by campaign group Dignity in Dying at the Scottish Labour conference in Glasgow, Mr Blomfield added: 'He had less life because assisted dying wasn't available.
'I am convinced he acted while he had the capacity to do so, rather than fear if he lost that capacity.'
Mr Blomfield, who is chairman of Dignity in Dying, which backs changing the law in this area, told the meeting he had had a 'fairly ordinary' phone conversation with his father.
But he added: 'The following day I got a phone call to say he was dead in his garage.'
He said his father had a terminal diagnosis for lung cancer but 'was at a fairly early stage of the disease', however he said he had seen 'too many of his friends die badly'.
Bills aiming to legalise assisted dying are currently being considered at both Westminster and Holyrood, put forward by Labour MP Kim Leadbeater and Liberal Democrat MSP Liam McArthur respectively.
Ms Leadbeater's Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill has already passed an initial vote in the House of Commons, while Mr McArthur's Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill is being scrutinised by MSPs on Holyrood's Health Committee, ahead of a vote before the summer recess.
Both proposals seek to allow adults diagnosed with a terminal illness to get medical help to end their lives, with Mr Blomfield saying: 'Both Liam and Kim are trying to fix that problem that we face as a society.
'My father wasn't alone, more than 600 people a year take their own lives with a terminal diagnosis.'
Glasgow University Professor Ben Colburn meanwhile told the fringe event there is a 'lot of misinformation' about assisted dying.
'I think the misinformation comes from a place of genuine concerns about protecting vulnerable people,' he said, but added the evidence is 'reassuring about those fears'.
Prof Colburn, an expert in political philosophy, said research shows: 'On the whole people with disabilities don't oppose assisted dying laws.
'Sometimes it is suggested that disabled people as a group are especially afraid of assisted dying legislation or are actively opposed to it.
'That is untrue, there is very strong evidence that people with disabilities support assisted dying, in about the same proportions as the general population.
'Assisted dying laws do not disproportionately harm people with disabilities and other vulnerable people.
'Assisted dying laws do not show disrespect or devalue disabled or vulnerable lives.
'And assisted dying laws do not have an adverse effect upon palliative care provisions.'
The Better Way campaign opposes assisted dying.
It said Mr Blomfield and others in similar circumstances must be 'met with the deepest sympathy', but says introducing assisted dying would be harmful to the UK's approach to suicide prevention.
A spokesman said: 'The UK Government's suicide prevention adviser, Professor Luis Appleby, has today cautioned that the Bills brought forward at Westminster and Holyrood may hamper suicide prevention work, should they be passed.
'A wide array of people, including psychiatrists, palliative doctors, and experts in coercive and controlling behaviour have also warned against a change in the law.
'Campaigners for assisted suicide are flat wrong to claim that 'assisted dying' laws pose no threat to vulnerable groups.
'And it is concerning that some proponents write off the very serious concerns of many disabled people. Opposition is grounded in very real evidence of abuses, expansion, and injustices against marginalised communities.'
They added: 'We'd urge politicians at Westminster and Holyrood to oppose assisted suicide and instead devote their energy to improving ethical and progressive forms of support: blanket suicide prevention, palliative care, and measures that create a more inclusive society for disabled people.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Herald Scotland
20 minutes ago
- The Herald Scotland
Sturgeon fails to be frank on education failures in new book
Over the past ten years, when I've been speaking about the state of Scottish education, or analysing the latest data on attainment or teacher numbers or classroom behaviour, lots of people have asked me variations of a simple question: how did we get here? Very often I have responded with the following explanation: Basically, Nicola Sturgeon was under pressure on education, and she went on a wee field trip to England, where people told her about a thing called the London Challenge. She listened, didn't understand, then came back up the road and decided we'd do the same things in Scotland. This, I should stress, was an obviously oversimplified explanation that I used to get a laugh from whatever room it was in, followed by a more detailed critique of the policy development process and the political implications. It was meant to be a joke. But it turns out that my depiction wasn't the caricature I thought it was – it seems instead to have been an exercise in unexpected realism. Read more: Keep up to date with our coverage on Nicola Sturgeon's memoir On page 255 of her new book, the former First Minister briefly deigns to address education issues when she tells us about visiting London in February 2015. This short visit to a single school, she explains, was 'instrumental' in the development of a policy direction that, by the end of the current parliament, will have wasted a full decade of potential progress at a cost of £1.75 billion of public money. Education pops up again a little later in the book during a section about getting 'Back on Track'. We are told about the decision to abandon a flagship Education Bill 'in favour of a non-statutory approach' to handing headteachers more autonomy. This was, allegedly, done because it would allow faster and more successful change, all without giving the opposition the chance to 'frustrate the legislation'. The reality from that time was that the government's own consultation on the Bill showed that there was little if any support for the changes the government wanted to impose. The decision to pull the Bill was, quite plainly, about avoiding a political humiliation. This thread, where everything would have been fine if it weren't for bad actors trying to stop her (because of course she couldn't possibly have just been wrong) continues when she discusses her decision to force standardised testing on schools. Read more Lessons to Learn: Once again, the reality is quite different from her presentation. As I proved at the time, the policy was based on almost no written evidence whatsoever – I fought a year-long FOI battle to force Sturgeon's government to release what material they had, and then discovered that it amounted to four unsolicited emails. What's more, although Sturgeon tries to present this policy as something that the other parties opposed, the truth is that both the Tories and Labour had been demanding the introduction of standardised testing, albeit for political reasons. When the policy was announced it was met with widespread opposition and condemnation from teachers and education experts – people who knew a lot more than Nicola Sturgeon and her circle of political advisers. Later, she frames the introduction of standardised testing as having been influenced by her 'sympathy' for the view that 'we had moved away from a rote approach'. The problem, if we're going to be speaking frankly, is that Nicola Sturgeon is a career politician who was a lawyer for five minutes in her twenties, so her views on the correct pedagogical approaches for literacy and numeracy are worth precisely nothing. And yet they set the direction of travel for the education policy of an entire nation. Unsurprisingly, the former First Minister declines to mention the specific and measurable targets for 'closing the attainment gap' that were included in the 2017 Programme for Government, which she says was the strongest of her period in office. There's a good reason for that: her government never, at any stage, even came close to achieving them. The closest that Sturgeon's book comes to offering an honest assessment of her education record is when she writes that her underlying problem was 'one of diagnosis' – even that isn't really true, because it still gives her too much credit. She didn't know enough to make any sort of diagnosis, and still doesn't seem to understand that fundamental point. At the launch of the book she went a little further, admitting that she didn't grasp the complexity of the issues she was tackling. But that's a cop out as well. Here's the truth: she had no idea what she was doing, and didn't even know enough to be able to recognise the things she didn't know, but dragged us along regardless. Acting from a position of ignorance, she pursued policies that have not only failed but have also been major contributors to the enormous problems currently facing schools, teachers, and pupils in this country. There are exceptions to these failures, the most notable of which is her decision to back the campaign for LGBT-inclusive education in Scottish schools. There are various other SNP politicians who might have been leader other than her, and without needing to name names I think we all know that many of them would have behaved very differently. Scotland became the first country on earth to introduce inclusive education and, as I have told her in person, Nicola Sturgeon should be proud of her role in that. But on the whole, and certainly with respect to the 'attainment gap', Nicola Sturgeon failed when it came to education. And now she has also failed to be frank about those failures. Having made this the central pillar of so much of her time and office, and promising that she would be judged on her record, Nicola Sturgeon's reflections on education are incredibly brief and a long way from honest. But what did you expect from a politician's memoir?
The Independent
35 minutes ago
- The Independent
UK university tuition fees could rise again
Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson is considering allowing universities to raise tuition fees annually in line with inflation to improve their financial stability. This follows a previous announcement that tuition fees, frozen at £9,250 since 2017, would increase in September 2025 based on the Retail Price Index. The proposal addresses concerns about the financial health of universities, with a report indicating 40 per cent of English institutions may face budget deficits this year. A significant factor contributing to universities' financial struggles is a decline in the number of international students. Labour's position on tuition fees has evolved, with Keir Starmer retracting his pledge to abolish them, now seeking a "fairer solution" due to affordability concerns.
BBC News
36 minutes ago
- BBC News
Row over Burnley Council's waste transfer station plan
A major row has broken out over Burnley Council's plans to build a new waste transfer station with the authority's leader branding his Labour group counterpart "petty and pathetic."Councillor Afrasiab Anwar made the accusation about opposition leader, Councillor Mark Townsend, as the authority approved the new development on the Heasandford Industrial Estate on Balderstone Labour group had distributed leaflets opposing the scheme on grounds of proximity to houses and the lack of a proper council said the new waste transfer station (WTS) - an industrial facility where waste is temporarily stored - would save money and residents "should not be concerned". Townsend told the meeting the leaflets had generated more than 500 letters of also claimed the development would cause "foul odours from rotting waste, increased presence of seagulls and rodents, and constant traffic from bin lorries throughout the day".The plan involves buying a site on Widow Hill Road, 400m (437 yards) from its current depot which houses its vehicle fleet for £361,000 and freeing up the existing depot site for the new WTS. 'Rats or seagulls' This would enable Burnley Council to get the development up and running by 1 April 2026 when Lancashire County Council's (LCC) contract with SUEZ to use the Whinney Hill landfill site council said the new WTS would avoid the estimated £1.6m a year cost of taking borough waste to Lancashire County Council's alternative recycling facility at Farrington near accused Townsend and the Labour group of "disinformation" in the leaflet and associated social media posts, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said: "This is just scaremongering for political advantage."Councillor Townsend and the Labour group are being petty and pathetic."We take tough decisions head on."Burnley Council's environment boss, Councillor Howard Baker, said: "This plan ensures Burnley meets new waste disposal rules while reducing as far as possible any extra burden on taxpayers."To be clear, these plans do not create a new landfill site in Burnley."He said it would be enclosed and emptied daily, with "filtered air extraction to prevent odours at a location 500 metres away from the nearest residential home"."Residents should not be concerned about noise, rats or seagulls," he the meeting, Townsend said: "It's not the first time when having no response to serious questions that Councillor Anwar has resorted to personal insults instead of addressing genuine resident concerns with his decisions."I can live with that. I'll support residents fighting for their community when he fails to."He said the accusation of misinformation was "desperate stuff" and he stood by what was in the leaflets."If it wasn't for Labour councillors seeking residents' views only a handful in Briercliffe would know anything about the new WTS," he added. Listen to the best of BBC Radio Lancashire on BBC Sounds and follow BBC Lancashire on Facebook, X and Instagram and watch BBC North West Tonight on BBC iPlayer.
