Jess Asato

No, thank you. I am sorry, but we have to make time for others. We know from other jurisdictions that it is disproportionately older and disabled people who would access assisted dying. These are two of the groups most vulnerable to abuse or coercion, particularly by strangers through financial abuse and cuckooing. Coercion is not just a risk with this legislation, but a certainty. There are 2.3 million victims of domestic abuse in the UK. Even if this Bill implemented gold-standard training—we do not know that it will—professionals will not be able to identify everyone. It is sadly inevitable that if the Bill passes, it is the most vulnerable people in our society who will experience wrongful deaths. A prominent campaigner in favour of this Bill said: “Even if a few grannies get bullied into it, isn’t that a price worth paying for all the people who could die with dignity?” Please, we must not settle for this. In a system designed to end life, there can be no room for doubt or human error. Coercion and abuse are real—they happen all around us all the time, whether or not we want to see them, as does feeling like a burden. Perceiving yourself as a burden is a common phenomenon associated with having a terminal illness, one that often leads to a desire to die. This Bill allows that feeling of being a burden—to those closest to you, and to society more broadly—to be acted on, rather than treated. Research has found that doctors wrongly predict how long terminally ill people have to live in over half of cases. There is so much life left to live after a terminal diagnosis. We should not relinquish our bonds, duties and responsibilities towards each other as fellow human beings. I urge colleagues to reject this Bill.