York Central MP Rachael Maskell says she will vote against the assisted dying bill, which has just been made public.
MPs are set to debate Kim Leadbeater’s Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill on Friday 29 November.
The proposed law would make it legal for over 18s who are terminally ill to be given assistance to end their own life.
Ahead of its publication last night (11 November), the bill has already been subject to much criticism.
MPs now have 17 days to carry out detailed scrutiny of the legislation in order to debate what Ms Maskell calls “a very sensitive and complex area of law.”
After reading through the bill yesterday evening, she told YorkMix that making it law would be a huge risk.
The legislation would make it illegal for someone to pressure, coerce or use dishonesty to get someone to declare they wish to end their own life, or to induce someone to self-administer an approved substance.
Those found guilty of either of these could face up to 14 years in jail.
But Ms Maskell states that the safeguards in place are not strong enough to stop potential coercion.
‘Not a clear and informed choice’
Ms Maskell believes people often only realise they have been coerced in a situation much later, which in this case, would be too late.
She said, “We’re learning so much about coercion. People that couldn’t label it before are now able to say, ‘oh, that was coercion’.”
Ms Maskell also said the risk of people self-coercing is too high.
“I’ve heard as a clinician so many times the patient say, I don’t want to be a burden on my family, or the money can go to the children or the grandchildren.
“If that is the case, this isn’t a clear and informed choice, but because they think it’s the right thing to do.
“That’s what I really worry about most of all, particularly for somebody who’s very vulnerable.”
For Ms Maskell to reconsider her stance on the legislation of assisted dying, she would need a “complete rewrite” of the bill.
She believes the flaws are so apparent that “any MP who does their proper job of scrutinising legislation would realise that this law is not fit for purpose”.
“One of the options that doctors said is that they would want a system where people opt-in to provide this service, and they didn’t want an opt-out process.
“And yet Kim Leadbeater’s come up with an opt-out process, which means that all doctors are now going to be confronted with the question at some point around assisted suicide.
“That’s not what the medical profession wanted, so it really does go in the face of what doctors are saying. I just think this bill is now incredibly rushed and it deserves proper scrutiny.”
Palliative care
When asked how she would argue with those who believe it’s within an individual’s right to decide their fate, Ms Maskell suggested that palliative care is the answer.
“Palliative medicine can do so much more, even recent tests are saying we can provide nerve blocks to reduce pain.
“There is so much that can be done, it’s just not broadly understood, and sadly, so many people don’t access excellence in palliative care, because we all know the NHS is absolutely under real duress.
“People may be receiving community palliative care, but actually they’re waiting hours for a district nurse to arrive because they’re running from patient to patient,” she told YorkMix.
Ms Maskell maintains the belief that through mending the NHS and a major push for palliative end of life medicine, this would prove a more successful solution over than the assisted dying bill.
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