With so many questions about coercion and its effect on palliative care, will concerns over assisted dying kill the Bill?
Organisations representing disabled people have been raising the possibility that Kim Leadbeater’s Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill may lead to them being coerced – bullied, in effect – into ending their lives.
One of them – Disabled People Against Cuts (DPAC) – posted a thread about it on X:
Do you reckon MPs will think what any of that means for disabled people? Or are they more likely to get it all backwards and think about possibly saving money instead?
If so, then they’ll still be mistaken, according to some.
Buy Cruel Britannia in print here. Buy the Cruel Britannia ebook here. Or just click on the image!
Writing movingly in The Guardian about the end-of-life care given in 2002 to his daughter, who died after just 11 days of life, former Chancellor and Prime Minister Gordon Brown [pictured] said the debate on assisted dying was moving too fast and said a commission on end-of-life care should be set up instead, to create a “fully-funded, 10-year strategy for improved and comprehensive palliative care” instead of seeking to change the law.
“When only a small fraction of the population are expected to choose assisted dying, would it not be better to focus all our energies on improving all-round hospice care to reach everyone in need of end of life support?” he said.
Brown added: “Medical advances that can transform end-of-life care and the horror of people dying alone, as with Covid, have taught us a great deal.
“This generation have it in our power to ensure no-one should have to face death alone, uncared for, or subject to avoidable pain.”
In that, it seems Mr Brown is in line with Health Secretary Wes Streeting, who has expressed concern about the impact on hospice care if assisted dying is legalised and has ordered his department to calculate the costs of the bill, warning that it could divert money from other NHS services.
Other Labour ministers including Home Secretary Yvette Cooper and the minister for Palliative Care, Stephen Kinnock, have indicated that they may support the Bill at the debate and vote on Friday (November 29).
This Writer’s opinion? I’m with Mr Brown, and even Streeting, on this one – albeit because of DPAC’s argument. The threat of disabled people being bullied into assisted suicide is real, and must be fought.
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Will concerns over assisted dying kill the Bill?
With so many questions about coercion and its effect on palliative care, will concerns over assisted dying kill the Bill?
Organisations representing disabled people have been raising the possibility that Kim Leadbeater’s Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill may lead to them being coerced – bullied, in effect – into ending their lives.
One of them – Disabled People Against Cuts (DPAC) – posted a thread about it on X:
Do you reckon MPs will think what any of that means for disabled people? Or are they more likely to get it all backwards and think about possibly saving money instead?
If so, then they’ll still be mistaken, according to some.
Buy Cruel Britannia in print here. Buy the Cruel Britannia ebook here. Or just click on the image!
Writing movingly in The Guardian about the end-of-life care given in 2002 to his daughter, who died after just 11 days of life, former Chancellor and Prime Minister Gordon Brown [pictured] said the debate on assisted dying was moving too fast and said a commission on end-of-life care should be set up instead, to create a “fully-funded, 10-year strategy for improved and comprehensive palliative care” instead of seeking to change the law.
In that, it seems Mr Brown is in line with Health Secretary Wes Streeting, who has expressed concern about the impact on hospice care if assisted dying is legalised and has ordered his department to calculate the costs of the bill, warning that it could divert money from other NHS services.
Other Labour ministers including Home Secretary Yvette Cooper and the minister for Palliative Care, Stephen Kinnock, have indicated that they may support the Bill at the debate and vote on Friday (November 29).
This Writer’s opinion? I’m with Mr Brown, and even Streeting, on this one – albeit because of DPAC’s argument. The threat of disabled people being bullied into assisted suicide is real, and must be fought.
Vox Political needs your help!
If you want to support this site
(but don’t want to give your money to advertisers)
you can make a one-off donation here:
Be among the first to know what’s going on! Here are the ways to manage it:
1) Register with us by clicking on ‘Subscribe’ (bottom right of the home page). You can then receive notifications of every new article that is posted here.
2) Follow VP on Twitter @VoxPolitical
3) Like the Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/VoxPolitical/
Join the Vox Political Facebook page.
4) You could even make Vox Political your homepage at http://voxpoliticalonline.com
5) Follow Vox Political writer Mike Sivier on BlueSky
6) Join the MeWe page at https://mewe.com/p-front/voxpolitical
7) Feel free to comment!
And do share with your family and friends – so they don’t miss out!
If you have appreciated this article, don’t forget to share it using the buttons at the bottom of this page. Politics is about everybody – so let’s try to get everybody involved!
Buy Vox Political books so we can continue
fighting for the facts.
Cruel Britannia is available
in either print or eBook format here:
The Livingstone Presumption is available
in either print or eBook format here:
Health Warning: Government! is now available
in either print or eBook format here:
The first collection, Strong Words and Hard Times,
is still available in either print or eBook format here:
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