Legalising assisted dying means 'people will lose their lives who do not need to', MPs are warned ahead of crunch vote TODAY
Legalising assisted dying will see vulnerable people who have no need to die losing their lives, MPs were warned today ahead do a potentially seismic vote.
Opponents to a change in the law on suicide said that vulnerable people including domestic abuse victims, the disabled and anorexics could all be at risk if doctors are allowed to help them to die.
Protesters swarmed around parliament today ahead of the crunch vote on the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, which seeks to allow those diagnosed with less than six months to live to be helped to die.
The biggest change on the law on suicide for decades is expected to take place this afternoon, with the result on a knife edge.
And MPs made impassioned pleas for and against it becoming law. They have a free vote on a 'conscience matter', with most of the parties split between the yes and no camps.
Mother of the House Diane Abbott asked MPs to vote against the bill, saying: 'There is no doubt that if this Bill is passed in its current form, people will lose their lives who do not need to, and they will be amongst the most vulnerable and marginalised in our society.'
And former Tory minister Sir James Cleverly answered yes camp claims that the law might not change for a decade if it is not done now, as he argued there will be 'plenty of opportunities' in future.
Many critics on both sides have asked for the legislation to be postponed to allow more scrutiny and changes to it to be made.
Mother of the House Diane Abbott asked MPs to vote against the bill, saying: 'people will lose their lives who do not need to. And former Tory minister Sir James Cleverly answered yes camp claims that the law might not change for a decade if it is not done now, as he argued there will be 'plenty of opportunities' in future.
But opponents of the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill also believe they may have the numbers to see it off the proposed decriminalisation in England and Wales.
Bill sponsor Kim Leadbeater is confident her plan to allow terminally ill people with six months or less to live to be helped to end their lives will pass the Commons.
She told MPs this morning: 'Not supporting the Bill today is not a neutral act, it is a vote for the status quo… and it fills me with despair to think MPs could be here in another 10 years' time hearing the same stories.'
But opponents of the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill also believe they may have the numbers to see it off the proposed decriminalisation in England and Wales.
The legislation passed a preliminary vote last November by 55 votes. But since then more than 20 MPs who backed it have publicly changed their minds, and the Bill would fall if 28 MPs switched directly from voting yes to no on Friday.
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch also urged her MPs to vote against the legislation, describing it as 'a bad Bill' despite being 'previously supportive of assisted suicide'.
But questions remain over what Sir Keir Starmer will do. He backed the law change in November and reiterated his support this week, but No 10 declined to say if he would vote today.
Labour MP Naz Shah warned anorexia patients could still access assisted dying through a 'loophole'. The Bradford MP cautioned that the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill was 'not safe'.
Referring to her amendment 14 to prevent a patient meeting the requirements for an assisted death 'solely as a result of voluntarily stopping eating or drinking', which MPs backed earlier on Friday, and a further amendment 38 which was not added to the Bill, Ms Shah told the Commons: 'When people stop voluntarily eating and drinking, that is not what happens to people with anorexia.
'People with anorexia stop eating and drinking because they have a psychiatric illness. These are two categorically different issues.
'So I must make it clear, absolutely clear, even though amendment 14 has passed today, this amendment does not address concerns about anorexia or close that loophole.'
In what will be seen as a blow to the Bill, four Labour MPs confirmed on the eve of the vote that they will switch sides to oppose the proposed new law.
Labour's Paul Foster, Jonathan Hinder, Markus Campbell-Savours and Kanishka Narayan voiced concerns about the safety of the 'drastically weakened' legislation, citing the scrapping of the High Court Judge safeguard as a key reason.
Liverpool MP Dan Carden - the leader of the Blue Labour group - also said he will vote against the Bill having previously abstained.
'I genuinely fear the legislation will take us in the wrong direction,' he told the Guardian last night.
'The values of family, social bonds, responsibilities, time and community will be diminished, with isolation, atomisation and individualism winning again.'
It comes as Cardinal Vincent Nichols, the Archbishop of Westminster and most senior Catholic in the UK, said the Church will close Catholic hospices and care homes if MPs vote for assisted suicide.
However Dame Esther Rantzen made a plea to MPs last night, urging them to pass a Bill she said could 'transform the final days of generations in the future' and replace the current 'cruel, messy criminal law'.
The broadcaster, who is terminally ill with cancer and has been a prominent supporter of assisted dying, said: 'Please allow us terminally ill the dignity of choice over our own deaths.'
Lisa Nandy, a frontbench supporter of the bill, today suggested that if the law is pushed through today, extra safeguards could be added in the House of Lords.
In comments that could be seen as an effort to win over waverers she told Sky News: 'I hope the Bill succeeds today. If it does pass the House of Commons stages, of course it will go on to the House of Lords, where there will be more debate and there may be more changes.'
MPs will get a free vote on what is known as a 'conscience matter' with ministers Wes Streeting and Shabana Mahmood expected to vote No.
Shadow frontbencher Robert Jenrick also reiterated his opposition last night.
Writing for the Daily Mail, he reveals how he helped look after his grandmother, Dorothy, as a teenage boy – and how she continued to bring joy to the family as she defied a terminal diagnosis for nearly a decade.
The shadow justice secretary says the prospect of legalising assisted dying 'fills me with dread', adding: 'My Nana felt like she was a burden. I know how much she hated the indignity she felt at having to ask my Mum or us to help her with basic needs.
'People like her – and there are many such people – may consider an assisted death as another act of kindness to us. How wrong they would be.'
Ms Leadbeater has argued terminally ill people must be given choice at the end of their lives, but opponents of her Bill have warned it fails to guarantee protections for society's most vulnerable.
So close is the vote that Alliance MP Sorcha Eastwood, who was isolating with Covid, was offered a private ambulance to bring her to the Commons to vote against it. However she tested negative today and plans to make her own way in.
The proposed legislation would allow terminally ill adults in England and Wales, with fewer than six months to live, to apply for an assisted death, subject to approval by two doctors and a panel featuring a social worker, senior legal figure and psychiatrist.
Significant changes since it succeeded in the initial vote in Parliament include the replacement of a High Court safeguard with the expert panels, and a doubling of the implementation period to a maximum of four years for an assisted dying service to be in place should the Bill pass into law.
Making her case for a change in the law, Ms Leadbeater said: 'We have the most robust piece of legislation in the world in front of us tomorrow, and I know that many colleagues have engaged very closely with the legislation and will make their decision based on those facts and that evidence, and that cannot be disputed.
'But we need to do something, and we need to do it quickly.'
A YouGov poll of 2,003 adults in Great Britain, surveyed last month and published on Thursday, suggested public support for the Bill remains high at 73 per cent – unchanged from November.
The proportion of people who feel assisted dying should be legal in principle has risen slightly, to 75 per cent from 73 per cent in November.
Friday will be the first time the Bill has been debated and voted on in its entirety since last year's historic yes vote, when MPs supported the principle.
However opponents claim there are not enough safeguards in the legislation as it stands to protect vulnerable people.
A think tank warned hundreds of domestic abuse victims could be coerced into using assisted dying by their abusers.
The Other Half warned that victims are already at a higher risk of taking their own lives and the situation could be exacerbated.
It has estimated that as many as 631 abuse victims, who are also terminally ill, could opt to die every year within a decade, based on the Government's own calculations about the uptake of the ability to seek help to die.
A poll carried out by the women's rights think tank found that two thirds of voters, men and women, are concerned about victims being pressured into dying by their abusers.
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