More than 1,000 doctors urge MPs to vote against Leadbeater Bill

MPs have been urged to reject Kim Leadbeater’s dangerous assisted suicide Bill in a letter signed by more than a thousand health care professionals.

Backed by renowned geneticist Sir John Burn, consultant paediatric cardiologist Sir Shakeel Qureshi and palliative care expert Baroness Finlay of Llandaff, the letter calls on MPs to heed the warnings of those who would be ‘tasked with delivering the legislation’.

In its current form, the unpopular Bill would allow patients deemed to be terminally ill and with less than six months to live to receive help to kill themselves. Westminster is expected to vote on the proposals next Friday, 20 June – at least 28 MPs would need to switch their vote to stop the Bill proceeding to the House of Lords.

‘Unsafe’

The letter expressed “serious concerns” about Leadbeater’s assisted suicide Bill ahead of Third Reading.

Signed by experienced medical professionals, many of whom regularly work with dying patients, the letter stated: “This Bill will widen inequalities, it provides inadequate safeguards and, in our collective view, is simply not safe.”

we urge you to listen to the doctors who would have to deliver the consequences of this deeply flawed Bill

It continued: “This is the most important piece of healthcare legislation for 60 years and we urge you to listen to the doctors who would have to deliver the consequences of this deeply flawed Bill.”

Detailing the signatories’ concerns, the letter said the Bill presented a risk to patients, families, the palliative care sector, the medical workforce and the provision of adequate care.

Risks

Risks to patients under the Bill, the letter warned, included a failure to “necessitate treatment of depression”, little protection for vulnerable patients against coercion, and a paucity of information on “the inadequacies of medical prognosis”.

It explained: “Research demonstrates that doctors get prognosis wrong around 40% of the time. As such, patients may end up choosing an assisted death and losing what could have been happy and fulfilling months or years of life”.

With regard to palliative care, the letter pointed out that the Bill makes it “a legal right for patients to access assisted dying, but does not mandate a comparable right to be able to access other end of life services”. Consequently, it added, “patients may choose assisted dying because palliative care provision is inadequate”.

Consultant Gastroenterologist Professor Colin Rees said the legislation “will have very profound consequences for the future”. He added: “many doctors are really concerned that members of parliament are not hearing the views of the medical profession”.

Invest in care

Speaking to the PA news agency this week, TV doctor Hilary Jones claimed that voting down Leadbeater’s bill would take medicine “back to the Dark Ages”.

Our Duty of Care spokeswoman Dr Gillian Wright responded: “If someone has not had access to palliative care, psychological support or social care, then are they making a true choice?”

Highlighting the difficulties and financial constraints currently faced by the NHS, palliative care, social care and hospices, she urged MPs, rather than passing the Bill, to “invest in excellent specialist palliative care, social care and psychological support”.

Christian Institute Director Ciarán Kelly branded Jones’s claim an “absurd hyperbole”. He added: “As with Esther Rantzen’s insinuations about MPs’ ‘undeclared religious beliefs’, it seems that some celebrity activists are prepared to say anything in their efforts to deflect attention from the fact that the more people are aware of the detail of this careless and callous Bill, the more likely they are to oppose it.”

GPs opposed

A recent survey by the BBC revealed that more GPs oppose assisted suicide than support it, with around half of the 1,000 respondents saying they oppose a change in the law, and only around 40 per cent in favour.

Among those who do not want to see assisted suicide legalised, nine in ten said they feared terminally ill patients would consider it because they would not want to be a burden on family, caregivers or the NHS.

More than eight in ten felt that it would result in patients being coerced to end their lives, and over three quarters felt that the law would be gradually extended over time. Seven in ten also felt that if improvements were made to palliative care, there would be no need for such a law.