Media Statement Issued 8 October 2024
User led disability charity Buckinghamshire Disability Service (BuDS) has sharply criticised the planned introduction of a Private Member’s Bill to allow doctors to give lethal medication to patients. The charity, which is made up almost entirely of disabled people, has called for a Royal Commission to report before any legislation is introduced.
In a statement issued by the charity, the Chair of Trustees, Andrew Clark, said:
“Assisted dying, or assisted suicide as it should be called, is a hugely controversial and difficult area of public policy. Disabled people will be affected most by any change in the law, but there has been no public consultation with disabled people and disability groups whatsoever.
What we are seeing is a rush to change the law driven entirely by a multi-million-pound lobbying campaign by two or three organisations with a very strong ideological commitment to assisted suicide. Social media is full of slick statements: assisted suicide lobbyists attended all the party conferences; and MPs are being bombarded with campaign letters supporting assisted suicide. This is not the way to make a profound and difficult change to the law on murder and assisted suicide.
BuDS, like many other organisations, demands a more thorough and comprehensive examination of all the issues around assisted suicide, and proper research into how people feel about it. The views of disabled people, who are most likely to be the victims of assisted suicide, have to be clearly heard and given due weight. We therefore call for a Royal Commission on assisted suicide to be formed and to report before any legislative changes are made.
As things stand, BuDS on behalf of disabled people strongly opposes any change to the law around assisted suicide. Any legislation brought forward now will be rushed and based not on a thorough understanding of the issues and consequences, but on frenzied lobbying by a few small and unrepresentative organisations.”
BuDS would like Kim Leadbeater MP to undertake to withdraw her Bill after Second Reading in the House of Commons. This would allow MPs to debate the issues and take an indicative vote, which can inform the longer and more thorough national debate which needs to take place around the issues of assisted death/suicide.”