Clegg urged to push for Bill that allows medically-assisted dying

The cases of Bradford right-to-die campaigner Debbie Purdy and recently-deceased stroke victim Tony Nicklinson were both cited by delegates in a powerful debate at the party’s autumn conference in Brighton.

The vote means it is now officially Lib Dem party policy to “press for the introduction of a Government Bill, allowing Parliament to consider as a minimum the legalisation of those who are terminally ill to have assistance to die with dignity”.

Lib Dem MEP Chris Davies told the conference that the highly-charged issue was “a matter of human rights”, and that it was time for his party “to take the lead”.

He said: “Britain does have a policy towards medically-assisted dying – shamefully, it’s been adopted by default. It’s called Switzerland.

“More than 200 British citizens have travelled to that country to secure help to die.

“Others make the same journey every passing month. But what of those who do not have the money, or the physical ability, or do not want their loved ones to face any risk of prosecution?

“As Tony Nicklinson challenged – ‘why can’t I die at home, in my own country’?

“He should have had that right, and so should others. The law must be changed to permit it.”

Elisabeth Wilson, a doctor from West Yorkshire, spoke movingly about the experience of seeing her 84-year-old mother starve herself to death after being left badly disabled by a devastating stroke.

“It took three weeks,” Dr Wilson said. “She had no voice, she was in pain and needed morphine patches to deal with that. It took tremendous willpower and was quite harrowing for carers and family to watch this process.”

Permitting medically-assisted dying, the doctor said, would have made an enormous difference to her mother and meant she did not feel obliged to put herself through the agonies of starvation.

She added: “This step would help the positive aspects of my mother’s death – knowing it was coming and being able to say goodbye – while mitigating or removing some of the negative aspects – the need for iron willpower, the acute hunger pangs and pain of starvation.

“And it would have given my mother choice, which is surely a liberal value.”

Another delegate, Naomi Smith, said the Lib Dems must seize the initiative while a party of Government. “It is time for Parliament to act,” she said. “As the campaigner Debbie Purdy argues, changing the law on assisted dying for the terminally ill is a no-brainer. Please don’t kick dignity in dying into the long grass.”

Other delegates spoke against the motion, however, calling for caution in the face of opposition from some medical groups and elderly people’s charities. George Kendall, from Cambridge, said the party should call for the establishment of a Royal Commission rather than demand a Government Bill.

“As party in Government we need realism,” he said. “No one can fail to be moved by the tragic cases of those who wish to die but are unable to. But this issue which on one level seems so simple, is fraught with difficulties. Perhaps the most important is that those who we would ask to implement it are broadly opposed.”

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