Latest news with #LeadbeaterBill
Daily Mail
28-05-2025
- General
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE Assisted dying vote 'on a knife-edge' as another MP now says they'll vote against new laws - despite previously backing Kim Leadbeater's Bill
Another MP who previously backed assisted dying laws has now said they will vote against the legislation when it returns to the House of Commons. In a recent letter to a constituent, seen by MailOnline, Liberal Democrat MP Brian Mathew wrote that he was 'minded to vote against the Bill' at its third reading. He added that several of his concerns about the legislation had so far been 'inadequately answered'. This included his worry that those who are terminally ill might apply to end their lives because they feel a 'burden' on their families. Dr Mathew, MP for Melksham and Devizes, is among more than 15 MPs to have altered their stance on assisted dying laws since an initial Commons vote. Opponents of the Bill have said there is now a high chance of the Bill being defeated in a 'knife-edge' Commons vote next month. An analysis by campaigners has revealed that only two more MPs will need to move from backing the Bill to voting against it for the legislation to fall at its third reading. At the end of November last year, the Commons backed the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill by 330 votes to 275, a majority of 55 votes. The Bill, being spearheaded by Labour's Kim Leadbeater, aims to allow terminally ill adults in England and Wales - with less than six months to live - to legally end their lives. Despite it initially winning MPs' support, opponents of the legislation claim momentum has now moved against the Bill as it continues its passage through Parliament. The Bill's third reading is expected to be held on either 13 or 20 June, when the Commons will decide whether to approve or reject the overall Bill and whether to send it on to the House of Lords. Lord Stewart Jackson, the former Tory MP and an opponent of the Bill, said: 'It does feel like things have changed in regards to the Leadbeater Bill. 'There is now a steady stream of MPs flipping against the Bill and, if this continues, it looks like it will be a knife-edge vote next month.' Conservative MP Andrew Rosindell said the analysis 'corresponds with the conversations I've been having with many colleagues who voted for the Bill at second reading but are now having doubts'. 'Momentum is against Leadbeater's Bill and there is every reason to believe we can defeat it at third reading,' the Romford MP added. According to the analysis, nine MPs who previously backed the Bill in November have since withdrawn their support - including eight who will now actively vote against it. A further six MPs who did not vote in November have now said they will vote against the Bill, while there are two MPs who voted for the Bill in November but are now undecided. In his letter to a constituent, Dr Mathew said he was sharing his position on the Bill after 'months of conversations with constituents, campaigners, friends, family members and colleagues, as well as deep, personal reflection'. He said: 'At the second reading in November, I voted in favour of progressing the bill as I felt that the committee should have the time and opportunity to scrutinise and improve the Bill. 'Coming to the third reading, I am minded to vote against the Bill, as I have several concerns I feel have been inadequately answered by the report stage, which is when the Bill is re-considered in the House of Commons following the work of the committee stage. 'Although the Bill's proposers and the committee have done an impressive piece of technical work, and I am grateful that my suggestion of the inclusion of a social worker has been adopted, I still find myself asking whether this is enough? 'I share the concerns of many constituents that individuals facing terminal illness will take the decision based on concerns that they have become a burden upon their family. 'This is a serious concern for me; I worry that in someone's final days, this question will loom heavy when it does not need to. 'The intimate setting of bedside care should be a time to be surrounded by loved ones, but this bill risks inviting interference of the judicial process into the delicate and pressing needs of the end of life where many, who will be unlikely to have considered assisted dying, may now face worries from it. 'Additionally, we must be honest, the current state of end-of-life care cannot be described as optimal. 'The provision of hospices across our country is patchy at best, which means that for some, an assisted death might be seen as the preferred option, not as a last resort to be used when palliative care cannot alleviate pain.' Dr Mathew added that a 'properly supported palliative care system much of the problem that this Bill seeks to deal with goes away'.
Yahoo
25-03-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
NHS will become national health and assisted suicide service, says MP
Assisted dying free on the NHS if proposed legislation becomes law is a fundamental change to the principles on which the health service was founded, a leading opponent has said. Conservative MP Danny Kruger said the NHS would, if the Bill being considered at Westminster passes into law, become the 'national health and assisted suicide service' as he accused those behind it of taking a 'red pen to Bevan's legacy'. He was referencing the NHS's chief architect Aneurin 'Nye' Bevan, who as minister for health was given the task of introducing the service under the 1946 National Health Service Act. MPs scrutinising the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill on Tuesday were considering two new clauses imposing a duty on the Health Secretary in England and giving power to ministers in Wales – where health is devolved – to ensure the provision of voluntary assisted dying services. Kim Leadbeater, the Labour MP behind the Bill, told the committee: 'I'm clear the process must be available as part of the range of services available to patients under the NHS and free at the point of need.' She said it is 'crucial that the option of a voluntary assisted death remains part of a holistic approach to end-of-life care' and added that private provision should also be available. Ms Leadbeater told MPs: 'NHS trusts and ICBs (integrated care boards) may, as they already do, use private providers in some circumstances. 'This provides flexibility, which is important, but chair, what matters is that the safeguards and protections in this Bill will apply no matter where the service is supplied.' She added that the same requirements will apply to all medical practitioners that they 'cannot benefit financially or in any material way from the death of a person and can only receive reasonable remuneration for providing a service'. This exchange in the committee this morning goes to the heart of the Leadbeater Bill. A new clause, amending the 1946 Act, will change the NHS to the National Health and Assisted Suicide Service. And no, it's not just part of end-of-life care. — Danny Kruger (@danny__kruger) March 25, 2025 Mr Kruger suggested a 'linguistic sleight of hand' was being used in the legislation with the phrase 'VAD (voluntary assisted dying) services'. He said it was there 'to avoid having to spell out that section one, subsection one of the NHS Act will now include references to assistance to end the lives of people in England and Wales'. Mr Kruger suggested this was because 'it's a hard thing to do, to take a red pen to Bevan's legacy, to fundamentally change the NHS from one 'designed to secure improvement in the physical and mental health of the people of England and Wales, dedicated to prevention, diagnosis and treatment of illness', and to include, to add, into that founding clause of the NHS, the words 'and end the lives of terminally ill people'.' He added: 'So I'll be blunter than the drafters have been. This clause changes the NHS from the National Health Service to the National Health and assisted suicide service.' MPs are considering and voting on various amendments to the Bill, including the establishment of an assisted dying commissioner and expert panels to approve assisted dying applications, to replace the High Court judge element which was scrapped earlier this month. Meanwhile, the Isle of Man's parliament became the first part of the British Isles to pass assisted dying legislation. Its Assisted Dying Bill will be sent for royal assent, having had its final reading by members of the legislative council on Tuesday. The Bill, for adults resident on the island for five years who have a terminal illness with a life expectancy of no more than 12 months, could formally become law later this year with an assisted dying service potentially in place by 2027.
Yahoo
19-03-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Esther Rantzen is defying the odds – and undermining the assisted suicide campaign
In January 2023, television presenter Dame Esther Rantzen was diagnosed with lung cancer. By May, her cancer had reached stage 4, and by the end of that year she had joined Dignitas. The next year, she extracted a promise from Sir Keir Starmer that he would allow time for an assisted suicide Bill to be debated in Parliament. Like many cancer patients, Dame Esther did not expect to survive very long. In 2023, she told a journalist that: 'I thought I'd fall off my perch within a couple of months, if not weeks. I certainly didn't think I'd make my birthday in June, which I did, and I definitely didn't think I'd make this Christmas'. Certainly she had reason to think her time on earth was short: the average life expectancy for stage 4 lung cancer is one year. Yet she is still with us today, more than two years after her diagnosis, thanks to Osimertinib, a decade-old 'wonder drug' which inhibits the growth of her cancer. As she wrote last Christmas, despite the constraints imposed by her condition, 'my own life is still worth living and enjoyable'. If enacted, Kim Leadbeater's Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, which Rantzen has been assiduously promoting since its introduction late last year, will deprive many of the additional time she has enjoyed thanks to modern medicine. This is because the Leadbeater Bill would make assisted suicide available to patients whose death, as a result of a terminal illness, 'can reasonably be expected within 6 months'. But as Rantzen's own case shows, to predict how long a patient has to live is a notoriously difficult – if not impossible – task. According to a 2017 study, doctors' predictions that their patient was likely to die in 6 to 12 months were wrong 54 per cent of the time; their prognoses were less accurate than a coin toss. All the Leadbeater Bill requires is that doctors should believe in their own assessment of a patient's life expectancy. This is despite the evident unreliability of such predictions. Moreover, if they are wrong and the patient undergoes assisted suicide as a consequence, there are no recourses – if the patient is dead it will obviously be impossible to ever know if the doctors' assessments were right or not. Even more worryingly, experts have warned that the Leadbeater Bill would allow those who suffer from severe eating disorders to be eligible for assisted suicide; they can claim it because refusing food and water would bring down their life expectancy. Amendments introduced by MPs to prevent this dire possibility have been rejected by the pro-assisted suicide majority on the parliamentary committee in charge of the Leadbeater Bill. How many wrongful deaths are we prepared to tolerate as a society? In the case of capital punishment, society's answer has been 'one is too many'. But the Leadbeater Bill's promoters seem to be willing to tolerate a great many such deaths. According to the MP, Jack Abbott, who supports the Bill: 'there is no safeguard that we could possibly put in... that would 100 per cent make sure that there will never ever be any mistakes'. His colleagues must decide whether this is a morally acceptable answer. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
Telegraph
19-03-2025
- Health
- Telegraph
Esther Rantzen is defying the odds – and undermining the assisted suicide campaign
In January 2023, television presenter Dame Esther Rantzen was diagnosed with lung cancer. By May, her cancer had reached stage 4, and by the end of that year she had joined Dignitas. The next year, she extracted a promise from Sir Keir Starmer that he would allow time for an assisted suicide Bill to be debated in Parliament. Like many cancer patients, Dame Esther did not expect to survive very long. In 2023, she told a journalist that: 'I thought I'd fall off my perch within a couple of months, if not weeks. I certainly didn't think I'd make my birthday in June, which I did, and I definitely didn't think I'd make this Christmas'. Certainly she had reason to think her time on earth was short: the average life expectancy for stage 4 lung cancer is one year. Yet she is still with us today, more than two years after her diagnosis, thanks to Osimertinib, a decade-old 'wonder drug' which inhibits the growth of her cancer. As she wrote last Christmas, despite the constraints imposed by her condition, 'my own life is still worth living and enjoyable'. If enacted, Kim Leadbeater's Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, which Rantzen has been assiduously promoting since its introduction late last year, will deprive many of the additional time she has enjoyed thanks to modern medicine. This is because the Leadbeater Bill would make assisted suicide available to patients whose death, as a result of a terminal illness, 'can reasonably be expected within 6 months'. But as Rantzen's own case shows, to predict how long a patient has to live is a notoriously difficult – if not impossible – task. According to a 2017 study, doctors' predictions that their patient was likely to die in 6 to 12 months were wrong 54 per cent of the time; their prognoses were less accurate than a coin toss. All the Leadbeater Bill requires is that doctors should believe in their own assessment of a patient's life expectancy. This is despite the evident unreliability of such predictions. Moreover, if they are wrong and the patient undergoes assisted suicide as a consequence, there are no recourses – if the patient is dead it will obviously be impossible to ever know if the doctors' assessments were right or not. Even more worryingly, experts have warned that the Leadbeater Bill would allow those who suffer from severe eating disorders to be eligible for assisted suicide; they can claim it because refusing food and water would bring down their life expectancy. Amendments introduced by MPs to prevent this dire possibility have been rejected by the pro-assisted suicide majority on the parliamentary committee in charge of the Leadbeater Bill. How many wrongful deaths are we prepared to tolerate as a society? In the case of capital punishment, society's answer has been 'one is too many'. But the Leadbeater Bill's promoters seem to be willing to tolerate a great many such deaths. According to the MP, Jack Abbott, who supports the Bill: 'there is no safeguard that we could possibly put in... that would 100 per cent make sure that there will never ever be any mistakes'. His colleagues must decide whether this is a morally acceptable answer.
