Assisted dying supporters defiant while opponents hail fall of ‘unsafe’ Bill
Demonstrators from multiple pro-choice groups joined Kim Leadbeater – who sponsored the Bill in the Commons – and other MPs to insist this is not the end of their campaign
Campaigners supportive of a change in the law were in a defiant mood in Parliament Square ahead of the fall of the assisted dying Bill, while opponents celebrated the demise of legislation they deemed “unfit and unsafe”.
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Demonstrators from multiple pro-choice groups joined Kim Leadbeater – who sponsored the Bill in the Commons – and other MPs to insist this is not the end of their campaign.
Around 20 people held placards saying “why did my wife have to go to Switzerland to die?”, “choice”, “I am mourning the assisted dying Bill”, among other slogans.
Among the campaigners was Liz Reed, whose brother Rob Smyth died aged 39 through assisted dying in Queensland, Australia, in 2023.
Ms Reed, 40, said he had cancer but his death was “really calm and peaceful and dignified and everything he would have wanted”.
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She described what had happened with the Bill in the Lords, with a large number of amendments being tabled, as “really shameful, it’s undemocratic, and it completely disregards the people at the heart of this”.
Fellow demonstrator Kate Rasmussen, 48, whose friend Paola Marra travelled to Dignitas alone to die, said: “The Bill might be blocked, but we are not defeated. We are frustrated but defiant. We will come back, we are not going anywhere, and we are not backing down.”
Dave Sowry, 69, accompanied his wife Christy Barry to Dignitas in September 2022.
Mr Sowry, from Chiswick, said he had been in Parliament Square after MPs voted the Bill through the Commons and felt “full of relief”, but is now “angry” at the legislation falling.
He vowed: “This is not the end at all. We will and we must carry on.”
Another group of four demonstrators who were against the Bill praised peers for “doing their job properly” on scrutiny.
George Fielding, 31, a spokesman for a coalition of disabled people, grassroots organisations and campaign groups, said a large number of amendments had been needed because there is “no bigger social reform”.
He said: “I thank the Lords, they are doing their job properly and they are doing it incredibly well.
“The second chamber is there to scrutinise, and that is what they are doing. You could not have a more literal definition of a life and death issue.
“I’m glad there’s been that amount of amendments because it is that important. There is no bigger social reform.
“It came to the committee stage in the Lords unfit and unsafe, and you cannot just agree something in principle and hope it works later.”
Regarding Ms Leadbeater’s previous comments that she and other MPs will try again to legalise assisted dying with another private member’s Bill, Mr Fielding said: “When palliative care is only a third state funded and an object of charity. When so many people are waiting for diagnosis and social care and being mistreated by the system. Why this? Why this?
“I don’t mind saying that I voted for this Government, but I did not vote for this.”
The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill was a backbench Bill so was not allocated Government time for its passage through Parliament.
The Government remained neutral on the issue and MPs voted according to their consciences rather than along party lines.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer voted in favour, while Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch voted against.
No vote was expected in the Lords on Friday.
Charities working in palliative and end-of-life care have called on Health Secretary Wes Streeting, who voted against the Bill in the Commons, to use this “critical moment” when death is part of the national conversation to bring about the improvement in care they say is much-needed for dying people.