Labour MP Kim Leadbeater has said terminally ill people have been let down for far too long, as she urged MPs to vote in favour of assisted dying legislation ahead of a Commons vote on Friday.
Writing exclusively for The Mirror, Leadbeater, who spearheaded the last attempt to legalise assisted dying, said MPs who backed her Bill were offering dying people hope and the dignity they asked for. She said those people thank her every day, as do many who do not want to see their own loved ones suffer unnecessarily.
Hope dashed by House of Lords
Leadbeater said that hope was dashed when a small minority of unelected members of the House of Lords stopped the Bill from becoming law. She described that as undemocratic and wrong, adding that people in this country support assisted dying by a big majority.
Her thoughts, she wrote, will be with terminally ill people who have died since she first brought in her Bill two years ago. They believed Parliament was going to change the unjust and often cruel way the law works now, but passed away before it could be done.
Strict safeguards and a second chance
Leadbeater said the choice being asked for has to be offered with strict safeguards to make sure no vulnerable person is pushed into a decision that is not what they genuinely want. She said she worked tirelessly to make sure those protections were in place, and MPs decided to support the Bill not once but twice. She called it the safest in the world.
Her colleague Lauren Edwards MP has now brought the Bill back so the hope offered is not extinguished. Leadbeater said the House of Commons has the chance to say that what terminally ill people deserve and what constituents want can be delivered. That, she said, will help restore trust in politics, but most importantly it will give hope back to those who fear a painful and undignified death that even the very best end of life care cannot prevent.
