Assisted dying bill’s fate may hinge on 12 votes this Friday, warns peer

Crossbench peer Lord Alton of Liverpool has issued a last-minute appeal to the public to contact their members of parliament ahead of Friday’s Commons vote on the revived Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, stressing that the outcome could be decided by as few as a dozen MPs changing their position.

On Friday 11 September, the House of Commons will vote at the second reading on the revived assisted suicide bill tabled by Lauren Edwards MP, almost two years since Kim Leadbeater MP first introduced the bill.

“Some parliamentary votes are forgotten by the following week,” said Lord Alton. “Others outlive the Parliament that cast them and alter the moral landscape of a nation.

“This is not an ordinary parliamentary vote. It is one of those rare decisions that can permanently change the character of a country, like the Abortion Act did when it was passed in 1967. 

“Indeed, Lord Steel, the architect of the Abortion Act, later said that he never anticipated ‘anything like’ the current volume of abortions when promoting his Bill.

“MPs are now being asked to cross another threshold: from a law that prohibits assisting another person’s suicide to one that would make helping patients end their lives through assisted suicide a lawful part of healthcare.”

Lord Alton referred to his background teaching children with special needs, and said the death of a former pupil, Ian, who had cystic fibrosis, shaped his conviction that “illness, disability and dependence do not reduce human worth”: “They deepen our responsibility to accompany, support and care for one another.”

Lord Alton pointed to the government’s own impact assessment, which he said shows the projected scale of assisted deaths has grown substantially since MPs last considered the legislation.

According to the letter, the central estimate for assisted deaths in the scheme’s tenth year has risen by 60 per cent, from 2,183 to 3,502, with a “high scenario” projecting as many as 6,257 deaths in that year — more than 17 a day. Alton said some experts believe even these figures may be underestimates.

“This is not an abstract danger,” he warned. “In a single year, thousands of people could die by assisted suicide if this bill becomes law.

“These are not merely figures on a page. They are people who may be elderly, disabled, seriously ill, frightened, isolated or worried that they have become a burden, who will have their lives ended.

“At the heart of this debate is a simple question. When someone is at their most vulnerable, should our law say, ‘We will care for you, protect you and stand beside you’? Or should it offer assistance to end their life?

“If this bill ultimately becomes law, our country will never be the same again. But I do not write to you in despair. This bill can be defeated.”

Lord Alton said the previous bill passed by a majority of 55 at its second reading, but by its third reading, after months of scrutiny, that majority had fallen to 23.

The bill then fell after it failed to complete its passage through the House of Lords before the end of the parliamentary session. In Scotland this year, a similar bill went from a 14-vote majority to a 12-vote defeat.

“Minds can change,” he said. “Votes can move. The last Commons majority was 23. On that arithmetic, just 12 MPs changing sides on Friday would defeat this bill. 12 votes are not the measure of an impossible task. They are the measure of a winnable one.”

He encouraged the public not only to contact their MP but also to share their concerns with everyone around them: “One supporter reaching ten other people could generate ten more constituent emails. One of those emails could reach one of the 12 MPs whose decision determines the result.

“During my 18 years in the House of Commons, I learned never to underestimate sincere personal messages from constituents. They can give an MP both a reason and the courage to reconsider. The same is true of a personal appeal from someone an MP knows and trusts.

“History will record how MPs vote on Friday. But what happens in the Chamber may be decided by what each of us does before then.”

Stay updated — add us as a preferred news source on Google: