Ex-prime minister David Cameron backs assisted dying bill
Former Prime Minister Lord David Cameron backed legalizing assisted dying for terminally ill adults.
Lord Cameron said in an article in The Times that while he had opposed legalizing assisted dying in the past, he believed the current proposals “Not to end life, but to shorten death“.
His main concern previously was that “vulnerable people may be forced to hasten their deaths”, but he said he believed the current proposals contained “sufficient safeguards” to prevent this from happening.
Lord Cameron becomes the first former prime minister to back the bill after gordon brownBaroness Theresa May, Boris Johnson and Liz Truss have all expressed opposition.
Brown, a long-standing critic of euthanasia, told BBC Radio 4’s Sunday programme: “Euthanasia laws, no matter how well-intentioned, will change society’s attitudes towards the elderly, seriously ill and disabled people, even if it is just Subconsciously, I also worry about people’s concern for euthanasia: “Professionals will lose something irreplaceable – their status as dedicated caregivers. “
Brown, Johnson and Truss will not vote on the issue because they are no longer members of Congress.
However, Lord Cameron, a peer appointed by Rishi Sunak to serve as foreign secretary, has pledged to vote for the bill if it reaches the House of Lords.
The last time the House of Commons voted on legalizing euthanasia, in 2015, he did not record the result.
Sources close to Baroness May, also a member of the House of Lords, said her views had not changed since she voted against legalizing euthanasia in 2015.
On Friday, MPs will have their first chance to vote on a bill introduced by Labor MP Kim Leadbeater.
Slightly more lawmakers have publicly expressed support, but more than half have yet to reveal how they plan to vote, making the outcome difficult to predict.
The Terminal Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill will allow terminally ill patients expected to die within six months to seek help to end their lives, provided two doctors and a High Court judge confirm they are competent and make the decision voluntarily.
Leadbeater said the “status quo is not fit for purpose” and her recommendations could prevent “a very painful, very painful death”.
Current laws in the UK prevent people from seeking medical help when they die.
The bill requires people applying for euthanasia to:
- Be 18 years or over, live in England and Wales, and have been registered with a GP for at least 12 months
- Have the mental capacity to make the choice to end one’s life
- Express a desire to be “clear, certain and informed” at every stage of the process, without coercion or pressure.
Writing in The Times, Lord Cameron said: “Many of these safeguards are familiar from previous proposals.
“But this new bill goes further to protect vulnerable people, including by criminalizing coercion.”
He added: “Will this law significantly reduce human suffering? I find it difficult to say the answer to that question is ‘yes’.”
However, some worry that terminally ill people may still face pressure to end their own lives.
Dr Rachel Clarke, an NHS palliative care specialist, told BBC Radio 4’s Today program that the “piecemeal” nature of end-of-life care meant some people could “feel burdened” or suffer avoidable pain. There are better treatments.
GP Dr Jess Harvey said there would also be practical problems with introducing assisted dying into an “already overloaded and overwhelmed NHS system”.
She told the program there would be costs to establishing “almost a new area of expertise” and questioned whether the money could be better invested in improving palliative care.
