Articles in Euthanasia & Assisted Dying

BuDS has independently analysed the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill due to be debated by MPs on Friday 29^th November. Our analysis is below.

BuDS has written to Sir Lindsay Hoyle MP, Speaker of the House of Commons, to ask him to use his powers to clarify the title of Kim Leadbeater’s Assisted Dying Bill. We feel the present title is misleading and argumentative, in breach of Parliamentary rules.

BuDS, a user-led disability charity which advocates for disability rights, has called on Kim Leadbeater MP to withdraw her Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill to allow the establishment of a Royal Commission or similar to look into all the issues around assisted suicide, to be followed by a Government Bill based on the Commission’s recommendations.

Kim Leadbeater MP has tabled a Private Members Bill in the House of Commons concerning assisted suicide. The text of the Bill has not been published so all we know about it so far is the short and long titles as set out on the House of Commons website^[1]. What do they tell us?

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.

Kim Leadbeater MP has introduced a Private Members Bill (PMB) to legalise the medical killing of patients in certain circumstances. BuDS has once again called on Ms Leadbeater to withdraw her bill to allow time for a Royal Commission to be set up to thoroughly explore the issue of Assisted Dying and make evidence-based recommendations for a change in the law. We think dying people deserve nothing less.

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.”

More Information

BuDS has compassion for people suffering at the end of life and wants everyone to be able to experience a peaceful and dignified death. We recognise the spectrum of strong views held about the issue of ‘Assisted Dying’ or ‘Assisted Suicide’.

As a community of disabled people, BuDS strongly holds that the lives and wellbeing of disabled people are of equal value to that of non-disabled people. BuDS exists to uphold and defend the interests of disabled people. ‘Assisted Dying’ significantly affects the interests of disabled people, especially now that an Assisted Dying Bill is before the Commons, and BuDS therefore needs to engage with the issue and have a policy position on it. 

If you would like to jump straight to our policy position, you can do so using the menu below.