Page 8 - The Portal Magazine - December 2024

THE P RTAL December 2024 Page 8

Assisted Dying

Lord Alton

IM LEADBEATER MP’S deceptively named Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill will have had
Kits Second Reading on 29 November, as MPs vote on whether to legalise assisted suicide in England and
Wales. Concern is mounting over this Bill and for very good reason.

Act in Haste, Repent at leisure scheme” open to abuse. “All in all, in relation to
When MPs last voted on the issue, MPs and the public the involvement of the judges in the process, the
were given almost two months to scrutinise the Bill Leadbeater Bill falls lamentably short of providing
before it was voted on. Having had sufficient time to adequate safeguards,” he said.
scrutinise the detail of the Bill, it was overwhelmingly
rejected by MPs by 330 votes to 118. Senior medics have also pointed
out the arbitrary and subjective
Similarly, earlier this year Lord nature of the Bill’s requirement that
Falconer introduced an assisted a patient have only six months left to
suicide bill in the House of Lords live. Professor Katherine Sleeman,
(his seventh attempt at a law change) a specialist in palliative care, told
and gave almost four months for The Telegraph “It is not possible to
scrutiny of the Bill before Second accurately to determine someone’s
Reading was scheduled to take prognosis as a number of months,
place. say six months or 12 months”.

More than half of the current “As a doctor, patients do ask me,
sitting MPs were newly elected at ‘How long have I got left?’ and I
the General Election this year, and would never say, ‘Six months or
have spent much of that time since fewer.’ I might say, ‘Your prognosis
the election on recess. is probably measured in months, or
“long months”.’ That’s as precise as I
This means they have had very would be”.
little time to hear from both sides
of the debate on this significant Research indicates that over
change to the law – and have been half of patients expected to die
given barely two weeks to scrutinise within six months to a year outlive
the Bill since it was published on 11 November. those expectations. Based on over 25,000 clinicians’
responses, the results showed that on 6,495 occasions
A Bill riddled with problems when a doctor thought a patient would likely die at any
Some of the Bill’s proposed “safeguards” are being point in the following 12 months, they were incorrect
called into question. One of Britain’s most eminent in more than 54% of cases.
retired judges and former head of the High Court’s
family division has slammed the assisted suicide In other concerning developments, the Health
Bill describing it as “defective” and saying it is not Secretary has ordered a review of the costs of
the “proper function” of a judge to rule on whether implementing assisted suicide if Kim Leadbeater’s
someone is eligible for assisted suicide. assisted suicide Bill is passed later this month, warning
of a “chilling” scenario in which patients are pressured
The Bill requires High Court approval to prove that into ending their lives, and saying assisted suicide
the requirements of the Bill have been met. However, would “come at the expense of other choices”.
in a stunning intervention in the debate, Sir James
Munby has said it is “not what judges do and not what “I would hate for people to opt for assisted dying
judges are for”. because they think they’re saving someone somewhere
money, whether that’s relatives or the NHS. And I
In a blow to Leadbeater, Munby accused her think that’s one of the issues that MPs are wrestling
of promoting a “profoundly unsatisfactory with as they decide how to cast their vote”, he said.
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