Many of you will remember the article Adam wrote encouraging us to write to our MP about the Assisted Dying Bill. Sadly, the bill moved to the next stage, with 330 MPs voting in favour, 275 against and 42 abstaining.
Many voted for it on the basis that their concerns would be addressed before the bill came to Parliament. However, not only have many of those concerns not been addressed, but the critical safeguard of requiring each case to come before a High Court judge has been removed. This means there is an important opportunity for us to ask our MP to reconsider – every vote counts.
An article from the Evangelical Alliance highlights four groups who are likely to be particularly impacted by the bill as it stands.
- The elderly will be at increased risk of being coerced into an assisted death. All proposed amendments to protect the elderly were rejected.
- Women with eating disorders, and women in abusive relationships will be left vulnerable. In three states of the US, 60 women with eating disorders were considered for an assisted dying pathway, and the bill doesn’t protect women whose partners are coercively controlling them.
- For those living with disability, access to care and support is squeezed. Protections for those with Down’s Syndrome have been rejected and disability campaigners have expressed concern about the disabled being under pressure to end their lives.
- Ethnic minorities are deeply concerned due to the deep health inequalities that exist in our country which will be further complicated by the bill if it passes.
The next vote is on the 16th May, so please write to your MP again or go and see him or her. The MP for Maidenhead, Joshua Reynolds (Joshua.reynolds.mp@parliament.uk), voted in favour of the bill. Please ask him, or your MP, to read the bill carefully and consider the implications of a system where the sick, and those with a six-month prognosis can receive a physician-assisted death, fully paid for by the state, and where the proposed amendments to protect the vulnerable have been rejected. Joshua Reynolds has said that he is in favour of assisted dying because he thinks people should have choice. Choice is an arbitrary and inadequate reason for the Assisted Dying Bill – if choice is the primary reason for allowing assisted dying, why put any limits on whom assisted dying is available for at all? The better value to be guided by is the sanctity of life – better to spend more money on hospices and palliative care than to divert it to assisted dying.
As Christians, we have a duty to protect life, and to protect the vulnerable. In Micah 6:10 God calls us ‘To act justly, love mercy and to walk humbly with your God’. Let us keep praying for God to prevent this bill from becoming law, and let’s act to speak up for those who don’t have a voice.
For more reading, and for help to write to your MP please go to care.org.uk or eauk.org.
Four groups negatively affected by the assisted dying bill – Evangelical Alliance