The disabled author and broadcaster Tom Shakespeare, and some of his colleagues, have written to MPs supporting the legalisation of assisted suicide. You can read more about their letter below.
BuDS has always recognised that disabled people, like people everywhere, have different views about assisted suicide. Tom Shakespeare and his colleagues are certainly entitled to theirs. However, every disabled-led organisation in the UK has come out against assisted suicide and, in our own experience as a large network of ordinary disabled people with all types of impairment and condition, it is only a small minority of disabled people who support assisted suicide.
The very fact that there is public argument about what ‘disabled people think’ underlies the need for this frenzied rush to legalise assisted suicide to be paused to allow proper research and analysis. It is extraordinary that Parliament is being asked to make a far-reaching change in the criminal law without there having been any proper consultation with dying people, disabled people, hospices, family lawyers, the judiciary or the medical profession.
BuDS has called for a Royal Commission to be convened to consider whether assisted suicide should be legalised. Such a Commission could examine international practice, properly consult interested parties, analyse the form of any law change, and bring forward properly researched recommendations based on evidence, not slogans and emotion. Tom Shakespeare’s letter underlines the critical need for such a wide-ranging study before the law is changed.
FAQ
Does the public back assisted suicide?
The media tend to repeat as fact claims by Dignity in Dying and other lobby groups that the population of the UK back assisted dying. However, the only poll which says this is one commissioned by the lobbyists themselves and which has never been published in full. The only results available are those on the group’s own website. Especially given recent revelations that Dignity in Dying has accepted very large sums from extremist pressure groups, we suggest that their unpublished poll should not be given high credence.
When considering public opinion, it’s worth remembering that many people think that ‘assisted dying’ simply refers to end-of-life care in a hospice, and support it on that basis. When people are asked, more accurately, if people should be assisted to end their life, the majority do not support that idea. This is why more and better polling and direct consultation is needed before any law change is made.
Does being privileged make a difference to your opinion on assisted suicide?
A feature of the assisted dying debate is that disabled celebrities, like Esther Rantzen and Tom Shakespeare, and privileged people tend to be far more supportive than ordinary disabled people. The reason for this is simple. The more status, wealth and privilege you enjoy, the less likely you are to be the victim of coercion or pressure to prematurely end your life to benefit others. From the safety of privilege, a ‘clean death’ on your own terms maybe looks attractive. But for poor, vulnerable and unrepresented ordinary disabled people, ‘access to assisted dying’ looks like, and is, a threat and menace. The law must serve everyone, not just the wealthy and privileged, and we urge everyone claiming to represent disabled people to consider that.