Disabled voices encouraged to speak out against Leadbeater Bill

An Easy Read guide to Leadbeater’s assisted suicide Bill has been produced to help those with learning disabilities to engage in the debate.

Disability rights group Not Dead Yet UK commissioned the resource ‘Kill the Bill’, noting that Leadbeater’s proposals will disproportionately impact vulnerable adults.

Westminster is expected to vote on Kim Leadbeater’s Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill on 20 June. In Scotland, a committee of MSPs will consider Liam McArthur’s Bill after it passed Stage 1. Both proposals could be defeated if only a fraction of those who voted in favour switch sides.

Discriminatory

The resource warns: “We believe this is a dangerous piece of law that will kill individuals at risk (vulnerable adults).”

“We believe it discriminates against disabled people, and they might be killed unfairly because of it.”

The document encourages the public to join the campaign against the Bill by contacting MPs, sharing their stories, and participating in events.

Not Dead Yet UK explained: “We are now campaigning to kill this bill before it harms the disabled community forever.”

‘Unnecessary deaths’

Last month, Liberal Democrat MP Steve Darling told Disability News Service that he had moved from being “marginally in favour” of the proposals, to being “marginally against”.

The Lib Dems’ Work and Pensions spokesman, who is registered as blind, 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.

Not Dead Yet UK spokesman Mike Smith commented: “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.”