Absence of disabled people’s voices from assisted dying bill has been ‘astonishing’, says disabled MP

Disabled MPs have voted overwhelmingly against the assisted dying bill, and warned that it poses a clear danger to disabled people if it eventually becomes law.

Although the terminally ill adults (end of life) bill was passed by the Commons by 314 votes to 291 on Friday afternoon, disabled MPs strongly opposed the bill.

By Disability News Service (DNS) calculations, those MPs who have publicly self-described as disabled people voted against the bill by seven to one.

Disabled MPs who voted against the bill were Labour’s Jen Craft, Marsha de Cordova, Vicky Foxcroft, Liam Conlon, Emma Lewell and Marie Rimmer, and Liberal Democrat Steve Darling.

The only disabled MP who voted for the bill was Marie Tidball, who spoke repeatedly in favour of the legislation during its committee stage, and whose support has likely persuaded some wavering MPs of its safety.

Of the eight disabled MPs, only Craft and Foxcroft spoke in Friday’s debate.

Craft told fellow MPs that their vote would have “real-world consequences”.

She warned that the medical establishment placed a lesser value on disabled people’s lives, and revealed that when told of her daughter’s Down’s syndrome when she was pregnant, “the first thing the midwife said to me after ‘I’m so sorry’ was, ‘I can book you a termination within 48 hours.’”

She said she could not support the bill “because we cannot legislate against discrimination and we cannot legislate out inherent bias”, and the bill did not have “the adequate safeguards in place”.

She said: “We have been told that there are panels that will provide a safeguard and take into account all of someone’s circumstances, and whether they have capacity.

“However, those panels may in exceptional circumstances – the bill does not set out what those are – opt not to even meet the person whom they are discussing.

“We know that the panels do not allow for family members and carers and those who know that person – if they have limited capacity, a learning disability or are unable to make certain decisions themselves – to play a role in that process or have any right of appeal.”

Craft said it was not the job of MPs to send a flawed bill to the Lords and then “out into the world, hoping that others will do our job for us and that it will all just come out in the wash”.

She said: “That is a dereliction of our duty as members of parliament.

“If you have any concerns about this bill, now is the time to vote against it. You must do that.

“You must not think that someone else will do your job for you. It is our decision.”

Foxcroft, who was speaking a day after resigning as a government whip over her concerns about the government’s disability benefit cuts, said she had previously been in favour of legalisation.

But she said that her four years as shadow minister for disabled people, during which she spoke to hundreds of disabled people and their organisations, showed they were “extremely fearful of assisted dying”.

She pointed to the huge numbers of disabled people who died during the pandemic, and those who had “do not attempt resuscitation” notices placed on their health records without their knowledge, which “made them fear for their lives”.

She said: “It made them fear that the authorities thought that their lives were worth less. It also made them fearful of what would happen if assisted dying was brought forward.”

She said disabled people “need the health and social care system fixing first” and “want us as parliamentarians to assist them to live, not to die”.

She said: “Disabled people’s voices matter in this debate, and yet as I have watched the bill progress, the absence of disabled people’s voices has been astonishing.

“They have wanted to engage. Indeed, they have been crying out to be included, yet the engagement has been negligible.

“I believe that only one disabled people’s organisation was given the opportunity to provide [oral] evidence to the committee.”

She also pointed to the failure to provide the bill in accessible formats, including easy read and British Sign Language.

She told MPs: “I will finish by saying that I am not opposed to the principle of assisted dying, but until we have a system that supports the right to life, I cannot support it.

“Until we ensure that all safeguards are in place, I cannot support it.

“And until the vast majority of disabled people and their organisations support the legislation that is being brought forward, I cannot support it.”

She added: “We are not voting on principles today.

“This is real and we have to protect those people who are susceptible to coercion, who already feel like society does not value them, who often feel like a burden to the state, society and their family.”

A note from the editor:

Please consider making a voluntary financial contribution to support the work of DNS and allow it to continue producing independent, carefully-researched news stories that focus on the lives and rights of disabled people and their user-led organisations.

Please do not contribute if you cannot afford to do so, and please note that DNS is not a charity. It is run and owned by disabled journalist John Pring and has been from its launch in April 2009.

Thank you for anything you can do to support the work of DNS…