Assisted Dying

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Assisted Dying

Thank you for contacting me about assisted dying.

I appreciate your concern on this very sensitive issue. Coping with terminal illness is distressing and difficult both for the patient and their families. These cases are truly moving and evoke the highest degree of compassion and emotion.

Assisting or encouraging suicide is a criminal offence under Section 2 of the Suicide Act 1961 for which the maximum penalty is 14 years’ imprisonment. I am aware that the Director of Public Prosecutions has published guidelines primarily concerned with advising Crown Prosecution Service prosecutors about the factors which they need to consider when deciding whether it is in the public interest to prosecute a person for assisting or encouraging another to commit suicide.

I fully accept that assisted dying and euthanasia are all subjects on which it is entirely possible for people to hold widely different but defensible opinions. This is why the substance of the law in this area is not a matter of party politics but of conscience. Should the law in this area ever be altered, it is neither a matter for government to decide nor a matter for the judiciary, but ultimately a matter for Parliament and therefore it would be a free vote.

Everyone would agree that terminally ill patients should receive the highest quality palliative support and end-of-life care, and that they and their families should be certain that their end-of-life care will meet all of their needs. With that in mind I welcome the Department of Health’s End of Life Care Strategy which is intended to improve access to good quality palliative care and encourage the Government further to develop specialist palliative care and hospice provision.

I believe that competent adults who are terminally ill should be provided at their request with specified assistance to end their own life and I therefore supported the Assisted Dying Bill. I have also supported calls for an inquiry into the impact of the current law on individuals and their families. 

As you may be aware, this issue was debated in the House on the 11th September 2015, and the proposed Bill which would have changed the law in this area was defeated by 330 to 118.

I am grateful to constituents who wrote to me about the new All Party Parliamentary Group on Dying Well, and I will follow the important work of this new group closely. 

I am also grateful to constituents who wrote to me about the Westminster Hall debate on Assisted Dying scheduled for the 4th of July. I have put in to speak during the debate and very much hope to be able to do so. 

Thank you again for taking the time to contact me. 

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