Contribution
I am here because we do need to change the law, so that dying people have the choice of a better death than too many horrible progressive terminal diseases allow for now. I am here because of my own conscience; I am a humanist and a patron of Humanists UK. I am also here with the support of so many of our citizens who desperately want to see a change in the law. Many of my constituents have written to me to tell me their personal story of losing people under the worst circumstances because the status quo did not allow them another choice.
Two weeks ago, I heard from my constituent, Julia, who told me about her mother, Jane, and asked me to speak about her case. Faced with a progressive terminal neurological diagnosis at 92 and unable to travel alone for help, Julia’s mother decided in secret to end her life in a very distressing way that I cannot bring myself to describe today. Julia said:
“I had no idea that she was going to act on her oft-stated desire, although in retrospect I realise that a phone call we had in the morning of that day she said goodbye in her own way, and she also made sure that it would be her friend and carer who would find her.”
That was instead of Julia herself the next morning.
Julia continued:
“While I miss her terribly, I am proud of her for her determination, and grateful that, the manner of her death apart, she has left me with positive memories of her, rather than the gradual eroding of her self that she (and I, to be honest,) were both dreading… Now I am coming out of the weeds of my grief at her loss, I am determined to help make her legacy the right for people in her situation—when they are faced with losing all agency—to have the choice to take the ultimate act of agency over their life.”
That is what we are here for. We are here to make something more humane than the situation that Julia and her mum Jane faced. Examples like these are real people—brave for telling us their stories—who have demonstrably been harmed by the law as it stands.
People are raising concern about potential harms if we change things. We have debated this so many times, and now, for every concern I have heard expressed that this new law might be used by someone who is ineligible or by someone who is not choosing freely the way that their terminal illness will play out, I believe we see real safeguards in the Bill before us. They are very, very strict. These requirements will be too much for some dying people, in fact. Some people will be denied the service in this Bill today, but others will benefit, and there is a clear moral case and duty for Parliament as a whole to act to progress this issue.
Now, there is not just a moral case for this Bill, which we have debated before, but a democratic case, too. The serious, careful work we started here must be completed in the normal way in the upper House for the democratic process to be complete. Last year, we voted and voted again on the principle, in Committee and on Report. The promoter of the previous Bill, the hon. Member for Spen Valley (Kim Leadbeater), listened and proposed over 100 of her own amendments and accepted more than 30 from opponents who wanted to go maybe further than she or I would have liked. She worked with civil servants to make its workability crystal clear, and a Minister reported back to us that the Bill was workable.
Other amendments were voted on in this House on Report. On Third Reading, we debated what we had designed, and voted again. We passed a sound piece of legislation last year, and I believe we sent the Lords a good Bill and a safe Bill—a compassionate and workable change in the law that they could refine if they wished. We must now say to the Lords that they must collectively do as MPs did and consider the Bill with the seriousness it deserves, do their duty in putting their votes on the record—vote, just as we did—and bring it to a conclusion in that place.
I ask hon. Members to please vote for this Bill to continue so that its progress and all the work we have done so far to build something better than the status quo for dying people does not end today.