Listen carefully to doctors on assisted dying bill - The Yorkshire Post says
The failure of an assisted dying law to make it through Parliament at the last attempt shows how tricky and emotive an issue this is for the country.
The debate will fire up again with the formal return in September of the deeply controversial Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill.
More than 140 Yorkshire doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals are now calling on MPs to reject the bill, calling it “unsafe”. These signatories instead want politicians to focus on improving access and investment into palliative and hospice care.
One passage reads: "Genuine choice at the end of life can only be possible if people have consistent access to high-quality compassionate care. At present, too many people do not. We are failing our society by denying them that care, and we would fail them again by offering an assisted death before ensuring that proper end-of-life care is available to all.”
Groups such as the Campaign for Dignity in Dying, of course, say that a “ban is dangerous and results in unnecessary suffering”.
The Private Member’s Bill, first brought by Spen Valley MP Kim Leadbeater in 2024, was reintroduced by her Labour colleague Lauren Edwards MP two months after it fell in the House of Lords in April.
The new Chief Whip Anneliese Midgley’s previous statements, including that the bill “doesn’t do enough to protect vulnerable people”, might signal how the Government views it this time – as might Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s Catholic faith.
Whatever one’s opinion, it is clear that very experienced professionals have serious reservations which must be taken into account.