'Slippery slope to death on demand': Justice Secretary details concern over assisted dying debate

23 November 2024, 21:33

The UK is on a 'slippery slope to death on demand', Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood has said in a letter to constituents.

In her letter, Ms Mahmood said she was "profoundly concerned" about the legislation which will face a Commons vote next week.

She added: "Sadly, recent scandals - such as Hillsborough, infected blood and the Post Office Horizon - have reminded us that the state and those acting on its behalf are not always benign.

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Read More: Gordon Brown says he will not support assisted dying bill

"I have always held the view that, for this reason, the state should serve a clear role. It should protect and preserve life, not take it away.

"The state should never offer death as a service."

On November 29, MPs will vote on whether to legalise assisted dying, through Kim Leadbeater's Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill.

Under the proposed law, assisted dying will be allow if a terminally ill patient is expected to die with six months.

Ms Mahmood said "predictions about life expectancy are often inaccurate".

"Doctors can only predict a date of death, with any real certainty, in the final days of life," she said.

"The judgment as to who can and cannot be considered for assisted suicide will therefore be subjective and imprecise."

Ms Mahmood said she thought some may be "pressured" into ending their lives.

"It cannot be overstated what a profound shift in our culture assisted suicide will herald," she wrote.

"In my view, the greatest risk of all is the pressure the elderly, vulnerable, sick or disabled may place upon themselves."

"The strict eligibility criteria make it very clear that we are only talking about people who are already dying," she said.

"That is why the bill is called the 'Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill'; its scope cannot be changed and clearly does not include any other group of people.

"The bill would give dying people the autonomy, dignity and choice to shorten their death if they wish."

The newest intervention comes after former Prime Minister Gordon Brown declared his opposition to the assisted dying bill.

In a rare intervention, the former Labour PM explained that the death of his newborn daughter in 2002 did not convince him of the need for assisted dying but rather better end-of-life care.

It comes as MPs are set to debate the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill on Friday, November 29.

Mr Brown told the Guardian: “We could only sit with her, hold her tiny hand and be there for her as life ebbed away. She died in our arms.

Read more: Why the Assisted Dying Bill is a vital step for the terminally ill

“But those days we spent with her remain among the most precious days of my and Sarah’s lives.”

Bridget Phillipson on assisted dying

Instead of backing assisted dying, Mr Brown called on Labour to introduce a “fully-funded, 10-year strategy for improved and comprehensive palliative care”.

“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 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.”

Kim Leadbeater, the MP responsible for the bill, said she was “deeply touched” Mr Brown would share such a personal story.

She said: “He and I agree on very many things but we don’t agree on this.

“Only legislation by Parliament can put right what Sir Keir Starmer calls the ‘injustice that we have trapped within our current arrangement’.

“The need to address the inability of the current law to provide people with safeguards against coercion and the choice of a better death, and to protect their loved ones from possible prosecution, cannot wait.

“So for me it isn’t a case of one or the other. My Bill already includes the need for the Government to report back to Parliament on the availability and quality of palliative care, and I strongly support further detailed examination of its provision. We need to do both.”

Under the End of Life Bill, proposed by Labour backbencher Kim Leadbeater, people must be over 18, and have at most six months left to live. Simply being disabled or mentally ill will not make someone eligible.

Anyone who wants to take their own life under the new law must live in England or Wales, have been registered with a GP for at least a year and have the mental capacity to make the right decision.

They must take the fatal medicine themselves - neither a doctor nor anyone else can administer it.