Lib Dem conference: Party pushes for assisted suicide despite concerns over lack of ‘watertight’ safeguards

Legalising assisted suicide is “the next great Liberal reform”, party members have been told, as the Liberal Democrats appear set to try to force through a change in the law in the coming months, despite continuing concerns over safeguards.

Despite significant anxiety – raised as an issue by Disability News Service and others in a fringe meeting – about the safety of any new laws, there appears to be strong support for such a move within the party.

More than 100 party members who attended the fringe event at the conference in Brighton heard Liberal Democrat MP Christine Jardine compare legalising assisted suicide to other Liberal-led reforms such as legalising abortion and same-sex marriage.

Jardine, the party’s spokesperson on women and equalities, said she wanted to be part of a “historic” moment by helping to force legislation through parliament.

One party member said the fringe meeting was “the most important event” he had attended at the conference, despite the Liberal Democrats celebrating the election of 72 MPs in July.

The campaigning organisation Dignity in Dying insists that it only wants to legalise assisted suicide – which it calls assisted dying – for those who are terminally-ill, but party members at the meeting still questioned why people with dementia or mental distress could not be included under a new law.

Three disabled people did ask questions about safeguards and the fears held by many disabled people about legalisation.

One disabled party member asked: “What are the safeguards in the bill that no mistakes will be made in the decision process between the doctor and the patient?”

Jardine committed herself to supporting new legislation only if the safeguards were “watertight”.

Disability News Service (DNS) pointed out that some supporters of a change in the law had accepted that no safeguards could be watertight, and so some people would inevitably die when they did not actually want to, if the law was introduced.

Professor Tom Shakespeare, a disabled academic who supports legalisation, has previously told DNS that safeguards were “very important” but that “even the best safeguard is not infallible” and “any law can be bypassed”.

When DNS asked the panel of speakers how many such deaths they thought would be acceptable, Jardine promised that she would “not work to get a law through the House of Commons that left any possibility that people’s lives could be lost without their actual consent.

“I don’t think any member of parliament would… go down that route with any bill that comes before us.

“We will not accept the possibility of a law which allows people to die against their will. That won’t happen.

“You have to be very, very careful that it is about individuals themselves, it’s about their will and that the law is absolutely watertight. Otherwise, it’s not acceptable.”

Concerns were also raised by Katharine Macy, who chairs the Liberal Democrat Disability Association (LDDA).

Although Macy is “incredibly, incredibly supportive of assisted dying”, they said many LDDA members “are terrified of this”.

They told DNS later that they had “always felt very strongly [about legalisation] because everyone I love who has died, has died of cancer, and I still have nightmares that my fiancé is alive and still dying”.

They said they were only in favour of assisted suicide for those who were terminally-ill, and that they “a hundred per cent see why most of my members are scared”, because “it feels very close to eugenics” and “if you are disabled, people think your life is not worth living”.

As an autistic person, their PhD is about “how autistic people are vital to our evolution”.

Macy said that the genetics that create the potential for autism have been around for 30 million years.

They said: “We won’t go anywhere, but if some people had their way, we would. And at what point does someone look at someone like me and decide that I’m not worth it?”

They also said that “we cannot allow assisted dying to be legalised without palliative care being good enough that you actually have an option”.

And they said that “disabled people know how awful the social care is, how awful healthcare and how awful palliative care is”.

But they said they still believed that legalising assisted suicide “will do more good than harm”.

The fringe meeting focused strongly on people who are terminally-ill with cancer.

Sophie Blake, a former Sky Sports reporter and a Dignity in Dying campaigner, described her experience of stage four incurable secondary breast cancer, and told the meeting: “A terminal diagnosis is devastating and overwhelming enough but the fear of suffering at the end adds even more trauma.”

She said she had lost family and friends to cancer and told the meeting that the current “dreadful laws” were “outdated and archaic”.

Professor Aneez Esmail, professor of general practice at Manchester University and a Dignity in Dying board member, said he believed assisted suicide should be “just one component of palliative care”.

Rabbi Dr Jonathan Romain, chair of Religious Alliance for Dignity in Dying, who chaired the meeting, repeatedly claimed that the bill did not affect disabled people, apparently suggesting that terminally-ill people are not disabled.

He attacked those who oppose legalisation – which includes many disabled people – telling the meeting that it was “sheer arrogance for one group of people to use their views to determine that other people should [continue living] in pain”.

Jardine said she believed that most of her party’s MPs were “committed to making sure we are at the heart of this”.

But her party’s leader, Sir Ed Davey, has expressed concerns about legalisation, and said this week that he was “a sceptic”.

As a teenager, he cared for his mother when she was dying from bone cancer, and he told Sky News that through nursing and palliative care she was able to “enjoy life” while terminally-ill.

He also raised concerns that older people could feel pressure to seek an assisted suicide because they think they are “a burden”.

His views came as reports suggested that Labour’s prime minister, Sir Keir Starmer, wanted to fast-track a private members’ bill that legalised assisted suicide through the Commons, perhaps before Christmas.

In response to those reports, disabled academic Dr Miro Griffiths, from the campaign group Better Way, which opposes legalisation, said: “Reports at the weekend that the government is considering ‘fast-tracking’ an assisted suicide bill through parliament are deeply concerning.

“A change in the law would have profound moral and social implications for the UK. No law should be rushed, and especially a law of this nature.

“If these reports are accurate, we urge the prime minister not to rush through legislation on this matter and meet with a wide range of stakeholders.

“This proposal is particularly concerning to groups representing vulnerable adults, disabled people, and those working tirelessly to prevent suicide.

“We will continue to fight their corner.”

Picture: (From left to right) Sophie Blake, Rabbi Dr Jonathan Romain, Professor Aneez Esmail and Christine Jardine

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