THE ALL-important Commons vote on this Bill, which we have written about here, here and here, is expected either today, Friday June 13, or next Friday, June 20.
If you are one of the many, many people alarmed by this ‘import’ that we don’t need and can get to Parliament this morning, please do join the protest gathering outside as MPs debate the Bill.
One of the many alarming things about this Bill is that hospices won’t be able to opt out of assisted suicide – and could be forced to close if they try. So if you can’t go to the protest please do contact your local hospice, and encourage them to put pressure on their MP.
You can find a map of many local hospices here. To contact one, click on the ‘pin’ icon, and look for a link to the hospice website on the left hand side. Alternatively, Google ‘local hospice’ to find hospices and contact details. Together offer this template to base your message on:
‘Dear [hospice executive],
I am writing to you to alert you to the real harms that might soon be visited upon hospices throughout the country should the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill (Leadbeater Bill) be passed into law. I also remind you that this is the time to meet with your MP and express any concerns you have.
‘In the Leadbeater Bill as it currently stands, hospices could be compelled to provide assistance in suicide or forced to close. An amendment proposed by Rachell Maskell MP to allow hospices to opt out of facilitating assisted suicide was rejected in March by the Bill Committee. Conservative MP Kit Malthouse threatened to defund non-compliant hospices. “Should they still be able to deny what is a legal service, if they are in receipt of public funds?” he asked. None of the recent amendments has reinstated that right.
‘Professor Katherine Sleeman, an expert in palliative care, noted that she spoke to a consultant at a large hospice last month, who told her if their hospice “opts in” to providing assisted suicide, “the entire consultant body has decided they will leave en masse.” Sleeman said: “How naïve of us to think it might be optional.”
‘In Canada in 2021, a British Columbia hospice that refused to offer medical assistance in dying was forced to issue layoff notices to all clinical staff at its facility. It was evicted by the local health authority.
‘Moreover, most hospices rely on volunteers and, in the UK, two-thirds of hospice funding is charitable funding. What will the knowledge that people’s lives are being ended in your facilities have on your funding? How will existing staff respond to suicides occurring in hospices?’
You can read more about the horrific rise of Canada’s euthanasia industry, essentially what Leadbeater’s bill if passed would presage, here.
There is still time to contact MPs this morning. Most are enormously sympathetic to the aims of hospices so please put your concerns to them now. You can use Together’s online tool here to contact your MP. Even if you have already contacted your MP it is worth recontacting him or her as many are reconsidering their position on this Bill.
As others have already pointed out, if this Bill does pass, the vulnerable, the old, the marginalised, the disabled and many more voiceless groups will lose their dignity, choice and autonomy over how their lives end. They will live in fear.
