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Is it coincidence that in the same week MPs passed the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill — a measure intended to give dying people the “freedom” to end their lives with dignity — Labour continues to push legislation and policies that make life for ill, disabled and vulnerable people increasingly unbearable?
This contradiction is at the heart of the UK’s unfolding debate on assisted dying.
And it raises a question that no one in government seems keen to answer: How free is a “choice” to die when the alternative is a life of neglect, poverty, or pain?
Six books are gone – 44 to go!
Just click on the image, make your donation
and provide your details!
“Dignity in death” while dismantling dignity in life
The Assisted Dying Bill passed its Third Reading in the House of Commons by just 23 votes — a stark drop from its earlier majority.
Labour MP Kim Leadbeater, who introduced the bill, insists safeguards are in place.
But those safeguards can only go so far in a society where dignity itself is in short supply.
Meanwhile, the government continues to roll out a welfare agenda that strips people of financial support, undermines access to care, and reinforces stigma against those who cannot work.
It’s doing so while underfunding mental health services, palliative care, and social care — the very supports that would give people a reason to keep going.
It’s as if Parliament is offering a velvet-lined door to death while slamming shut every other exit.
Buy Cruel Britannia in print here. Buy the Cruel Britannia ebook here. Or just click on the image!
Legislation that sends the wrong message
Critics of assisted dying have long warned about the dangers of people feeling like a burden — not because of their illness, but because of how society treats them. This bill arrives in tandem with:
-
Planned restrictions to disability benefits, including Personal Independence Payments (PIP), that would push more sick people into poverty.
-
An increasingly punitive Work Capability Assessment regime — again — that frames support as something to be taken away unless claimants prove they’re “deserving”.
-
Widespread hospital closures and hospice funding shortfalls, leaving many to die without proper care, let alone dignity.
Even the government’s own amendment to “review palliative care provision” within a year reads less like a safeguard and more like an admission: they know services are inadequate, but they would rather legalise death than fix them.
Get my free guide: “10 Political Lies You Were Sold This Decade” — just subscribe to our email list here:
👉 https://voxpoliticalonline.com
“Burden” is not a diagnosis — it’s a social verdict
Opponents of the bill include not just religious groups but many disabled people and activists.
George Fielding, a campaigner from the Not Dead Yet network and wheelchair user with cerebral palsy, called the vote “incredibly disappointing,” warning that it would “endanger, foreshorten and I would say kill the most vulnerable people in our society.”
“We must ask the Lords to scrutinise this bill line by line to promote other alternatives — palliative care, social care, a better benefits system — to ensure everyone has the right to live a joyful life.”
He’s right.
For too many people, especially those with chronic illnesses or complex disabilities, the bill risks becoming a shortcut to silence — a state-sanctioned exit from a society that no longer wants to pay the cost of inclusion.
No life support — but death on demand?
It’s not just disability activists who are alarmed.
Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson, former Paralympian and crossbench peer, has promised to push for tighter amendments in the House of Lords, citing widespread fear among disabled communities.
Even Conservative MP James Cleverly — hardly a poster child for compassion — remarked that many medical professionals oppose the specific content of this bill, even if they are neutral on the principle.
“When the people upon whom we rely to deliver this say we are not ready… we should listen,” he told the House.
Yet the vote pressed ahead — and while advocates celebrated on Parliament Square in flamingo-pink Dignity in Dying shirts, opponents held quiet vigils, warning that without better safeguards, this is not choice — it’s pressure.
A deadly distraction?
There are people who face unbearable pain, and who deserve autonomy over their deaths.
But this bill — at this time, in this political context — feels less like compassion and more like a distraction – from a state that is failing its people in life and fast-tracking a legal solution to the suffering it has caused.
As Parliament talks up “dignity in dying”, it might ask itself a harder question: what about dignity in living?
Why is there no equivalent urgency to fix the care crisis, or fully fund hospices, or overhaul punitive benefit regimes?
When people have no access to high-quality support, the right to die can begin to look less like freedom, and more like resignation.
Six books are gone – 44 to go!
Just click on the image, make your donation
and provide your details!
What now? Lords must ask harder questions
The bill now moves to the House of Lords, where it is likely to be amended — perhaps substantially.
It is not guaranteed to pass.
And that is a good thing.
Because this legislation demands a level of scrutiny that goes beyond good intentions or tearful personal stories.
It demands that we reckon with the society we’ve built — and ask whether it’s fit for the people living in it.
As Baroness Grey-Thompson, Sister Doreen Cunningham, and campaigners like George Fielding have rightly pointed out: we do not yet have a system that values the lives of sick and disabled people.
Until that changes, offering them an easier death is not mercy.
It’s moral failure.
Want more on this story? Follow Vox Political for updates as the bill moves through the House of Lords. We’ll be watching — and remembering who stood up for the right to live with dignity, not just to die with it.
Share this post:
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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:
If Parliament is offering death with dignity, is it taking the right to live with it?
Share this post:
Is it coincidence that in the same week MPs passed the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill — a measure intended to give dying people the “freedom” to end their lives with dignity — Labour continues to push legislation and policies that make life for ill, disabled and vulnerable people increasingly unbearable?
This contradiction is at the heart of the UK’s unfolding debate on assisted dying.
And it raises a question that no one in government seems keen to answer: How free is a “choice” to die when the alternative is a life of neglect, poverty, or pain?
Six books are gone – 44 to go!
Just click on the image, make your donation
and provide your details!
“Dignity in death” while dismantling dignity in life
The Assisted Dying Bill passed its Third Reading in the House of Commons by just 23 votes — a stark drop from its earlier majority.
Labour MP Kim Leadbeater, who introduced the bill, insists safeguards are in place.
But those safeguards can only go so far in a society where dignity itself is in short supply.
Meanwhile, the government continues to roll out a welfare agenda that strips people of financial support, undermines access to care, and reinforces stigma against those who cannot work.
It’s doing so while underfunding mental health services, palliative care, and social care — the very supports that would give people a reason to keep going.
It’s as if Parliament is offering a velvet-lined door to death while slamming shut every other exit.
Buy Cruel Britannia in print here. Buy the Cruel Britannia ebook here. Or just click on the image!
Legislation that sends the wrong message
Critics of assisted dying have long warned about the dangers of people feeling like a burden — not because of their illness, but because of how society treats them. This bill arrives in tandem with:
Planned restrictions to disability benefits, including Personal Independence Payments (PIP), that would push more sick people into poverty.
An increasingly punitive Work Capability Assessment regime — again — that frames support as something to be taken away unless claimants prove they’re “deserving”.
Widespread hospital closures and hospice funding shortfalls, leaving many to die without proper care, let alone dignity.
Even the government’s own amendment to “review palliative care provision” within a year reads less like a safeguard and more like an admission: they know services are inadequate, but they would rather legalise death than fix them.
Get my free guide: “10 Political Lies You Were Sold This Decade” — just subscribe to our email list here:
👉 https://voxpoliticalonline.com
“Burden” is not a diagnosis — it’s a social verdict
Opponents of the bill include not just religious groups but many disabled people and activists.
George Fielding, a campaigner from the Not Dead Yet network and wheelchair user with cerebral palsy, called the vote “incredibly disappointing,” warning that it would “endanger, foreshorten and I would say kill the most vulnerable people in our society.”
He’s right.
For too many people, especially those with chronic illnesses or complex disabilities, the bill risks becoming a shortcut to silence — a state-sanctioned exit from a society that no longer wants to pay the cost of inclusion.
No life support — but death on demand?
It’s not just disability activists who are alarmed.
Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson, former Paralympian and crossbench peer, has promised to push for tighter amendments in the House of Lords, citing widespread fear among disabled communities.
Even Conservative MP James Cleverly — hardly a poster child for compassion — remarked that many medical professionals oppose the specific content of this bill, even if they are neutral on the principle.
Yet the vote pressed ahead — and while advocates celebrated on Parliament Square in flamingo-pink Dignity in Dying shirts, opponents held quiet vigils, warning that without better safeguards, this is not choice — it’s pressure.
A deadly distraction?
There are people who face unbearable pain, and who deserve autonomy over their deaths.
But this bill — at this time, in this political context — feels less like compassion and more like a distraction – from a state that is failing its people in life and fast-tracking a legal solution to the suffering it has caused.
As Parliament talks up “dignity in dying”, it might ask itself a harder question: what about dignity in living?
Why is there no equivalent urgency to fix the care crisis, or fully fund hospices, or overhaul punitive benefit regimes?
When people have no access to high-quality support, the right to die can begin to look less like freedom, and more like resignation.
Six books are gone – 44 to go!
Just click on the image, make your donation
and provide your details!
What now? Lords must ask harder questions
The bill now moves to the House of Lords, where it is likely to be amended — perhaps substantially.
It is not guaranteed to pass.
And that is a good thing.
Because this legislation demands a level of scrutiny that goes beyond good intentions or tearful personal stories.
It demands that we reckon with the society we’ve built — and ask whether it’s fit for the people living in it.
As Baroness Grey-Thompson, Sister Doreen Cunningham, and campaigners like George Fielding have rightly pointed out: we do not yet have a system that values the lives of sick and disabled people.
Until that changes, offering them an easier death is not mercy.
It’s moral failure.
Want more on this story? Follow Vox Political for updates as the bill moves through the House of Lords. We’ll be watching — and remembering who stood up for the right to live with dignity, not just to die with it.
Share this post:
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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