The assisted dying bill is a chance to move the conversation forward with dignity and care, Vince Cable says

20 June 2025, 12:29

This isn’t a rush to legislate—if passed, the Bill would take years to implement. But it is a chance to move the conversation forward with dignity and care.

This week, the Commons is taking on two emotionally charged and morally complex issues: first, voting to decriminalise abortion outside the existing time limits. Secondly – today – the prospect of legalising assisted dying for terminally ill patients.

Whichever side you’re on, both debates show Parliament at its most serious and mature—dealing not in soundbites, but in fundamental issues of life and death.

On assisted dying, public opinion is clear. A majority of voters, and indeed MPs, support a change in the law. But Parliament has been hesitant, and understandably so. Hard cases can lead to bad law. The challenge is to respond to individual suffering while ensuring proper safeguards and protections for society as a whole.

I speak as someone whose views have evolved. When I first considered the issue some decades ago, I was cautious.

Like many, I worried about coercion, misdiagnosis, and the message we might send to the elderly or disabled. My own family experiences only deepened that concern.

My mother, in her later years, suffered from confusion and depression. I feared that, had the law been more permissive, she might have chosen to end her life not because she truly wanted to, but because she felt she was a burden.

My first wife, who died of cancer in her fifties, made it clear that she did not wish to terminate her life prematurely and wished to die at home surrounded by a loving family, with palliative support.

And yet, I’ve also met terminally ill people—lucid, rational and unwavering—who want nothing more than the legal right to end their lives peacefully and on their own terms. Some have Motor Neurone Disease or advanced cancer and face months of unbearable suffering.

The Assisted Dying Bill now before Parliament is deliberately narrow. It would only apply to mentally competent adults with six months or less to live. Two doctors must confirm the diagnosis, and a judicial panel would need to approve each case. There is no room for ambiguity. Medical professionals with ethical objections would not be required to participate.

But the concerns raised by clinicians and disability rights groups deserve to be taken seriously.

My Liberal Democrat successor as MP for Twickenham, Munira Wilson, has rightly secured an important amendment requiring a full review of palliative care services. It’s crucial that no one ever feels they must choose assisted dying because of a lack of proper support.

The experience of other countries, like Canada and parts of the United States, shows that it’s possible to strike the right balance between choice and protection.

This isn’t a rush to legislate—if passed, the Bill would take years to implement. But it is a chance to move the conversation forward with dignity and care.

This issue potentially affects all of us. Now in my 80s, I am fortunate to have managed to stay largely free of the diseases of old age and to enjoy a busy, physically and mentally active and fulfilling life.

But at some point, age will catch up with me. I would then like to feel that I have some control over what happens next.

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Sir Vince Cable is an author, economist, and former Business Secretary.

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