Concerns over Leadbeater Bill ‘safeguards’ causes disabled MP to drop support

A lack of “appropriate safeguards” has led a disabled MP to reconsider his support for Kim Leadbeater’s assisted suicide Bill.

Liberal Democrat MP Steve Darling, registered as blind, told Disability News Service (DNS) that he had moved from being “marginally in favour” of the proposals, to being “marginally against”.

The Christian Institute and other evangelical groups are calling on Christians to again unite in a national day of prayer against the assisted suicide Bills at Westminster and Holyrood on 11 June.

Concerns

The Lib Dems’ Work and Pensions spokesman confessed: “I’m getting more worried that the appropriate safeguards are not appearing as clearly as I would wish to see in the emerging bill.”

He also expressed concern over a lack of appropriate care for people deemed to be terminally ill, which he feared might lead them to feel “pushed” in the direction of assisted suicide.

Darling voted for legalising assisted suicide in England and Wales last year, but said he has not yet decided how he will vote at the Bill’s final reading, expected on 20 June.

‘Unnecessary deaths’

Mike Smith, spokesman for Not Dead Yet UK (NDY), a network for disabled people, said it is “aware of an increasing number of MPs who have reservations about this legislation”.

These reservations, he explained, revolved around whether “the safeguards aren’t strong enough, or the process has been rushed and flawed, or simply that it’s dangerous in the context of current social care and health provision”.

He added: “It’s really important disabled MPs use their insight, gained from personal understanding of the structural disadvantages disabled people face, to better explain the consequences of this badly conceived bill.

“We would encourage more disabled MPs to educate their colleagues on why this bill, as drafted, will lead to the unnecessary deaths of many in our society.”

Unsafe and inadequate

Several MPs have already announced they intend to vote against Kim Leadbeater’s assisted suicide Bill, having previously supported it.

Labour MP Jonathan Hinder and Conservative Andrew Snowden voted in favour of the Bill in November, while Debbie Abrahams and Peter Lamb both abstained, but they have all since decided that it has been rushed and lacks adequate safeguards.

The Bill was recently dealt another blow when the Royal College of Psychiatrists announced it cannot support the legislation. Dr Lade Smith, the Royal College’s President, urged MPs to prevent the “inadequate” proposals from becoming law.