Our message to MPs

As a Member of Parliament, you have a crucial role to play in protecting disabled people’s lives and supporting our ability to live dignified and independent lives.

 

We are afraid, because the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill threatens our autonomy and our options.

Why You Must Vote Down the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill

You have a responsibility to your disabled and unwell constituents to vote down this unsafe Bill. Safeguards have already been removed, it threatens disabled people’s autonomy, eligibility is expanding, and eligibility criteria will grow even further, if passed.

 

This Bill is unsafe. Scrutiny has only exposed its dangers, not fixed them.

 

Scrutiny Has Proven Disabled People’s Fears Right

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• At Second Reading, MPs were promised a High Court Judge’s oversight. That has now been removed in favour of a weaker Review Panel.

• Every attempt to strengthen protections has been rejected. MPs voted down safeguards against coercion, mental health risks, and flawed prognosis times.

• If these safeguards were removed during scrutiny, how can anyone trust they will remain in law?

This Bill does not create choice. It creates expectation.

The risk of coercion in assisted suicide is terrifying, and the proposed safeguards are inadequate to protect against this.

In addition, disabled people are already unable to access the support we need to live independent lives, making it more likely that we will want to die.

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• Disabled people already struggle to access care and support.

• If assisted suicide is legal, people will feel pressure to justify continuing to live.

• We cannot create a society where it is easier to die than to access care.

Safeguards have been removed, not strengthened. The promised High Court safeguard has been scrapped.

Key Safeguards MPs Have Already Rejected:

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• Stronger mental capacity and decision-making thresholds to qualify for assisted suicide.

• Exemptions for prisoners and homeless people

• Banning undue influence, manipulation and encouragement to die like a burden

• Preventing decisions to die by assisted suicide that are based on feeling

• Requiring palliative care consultation first

• Blocking eating disorders as a qualifying illness

• Explicitly excluding disabled people and people with mental health problems

Scrutiny has weakened this Bill, not strengthened it. This should be a red flag.

Assisted Suicide Laws Always Expand. This One Already Has, Before It Has Even Passed

MPs have proposed extending prognosis from 6 to 12 months for neurodegenerative conditions - just like in Australia, where – like in every country with legalised assisted suicide – eligibility kept widening.

If eligibility is already widening now, what will stop it from expanding further?

This will not stop here. Every country that legalised assisted suicide has expanded criteria. The UK is already following the same path.

MPs: Your Vote Will Shape the Future.

Ask yourself, as a country, do we invest in care, support, and palliative services?

Or do we allow assisted suicide laws to follow the same dangerous path we’ve seen abroad?

This is about protecting disabled and terminally ill people from harm.
 

Turn up. Vote. Reject this Bill.