Labour MP Ashley Dalton, who has terminal cancer, has said she will vote against the Assisted Dying Bill when it returns to Parliament on Friday. Writing exclusively for The Mirror, the MP for West Lancashire said she cannot support the legislation despite understanding the fears of those facing the end of their lives.
Personal experience shapes decision
Dalton, who has a terminal cancer that will kill her, said the debate is not hypothetical for her. She admitted that in the early days of her diagnosis, the thought crossed her mind that it would be easier to just die and avoid unnecessary suffering and burden upon herself and her loved ones.
However, she said that when she looks at the Assisted Dying Bill MPs have been asked to consider, she cannot vote for it. The Bill failed to pass this spring because of major concerns about its safety among professionals and in the House of Lords.
Palliative care and vulnerable people
Dalton argued that supporters of assisted dying talk about giving terminally ill people like her a choice, but meaningful choice cannot exist when palliative care in the country is not good enough. She said far too many people do not get the good quality palliative care they need and face pain and suffering at the end of their lives.
She added that there can be no meaningful choice if people's options are continued suffering or an assisted death. She also cited the Government's own impact assessment, which makes clear that vulnerable people risk being pressured or coerced into an assisted death, including domestic abuse victims, older people, people with a mental illness, people from minority ethnic backgrounds, and people with disabilities.
Experts' concerns and the vote
Many royal medical colleges and professional organisations made up of the doctors, psychiatrists and social workers who would have to deliver assisted deaths have raised serious concerns about the Bill, Dalton said. None of them will say that the Bill is safe to be made law.
Dalton said MPs like her have a choice tomorrow, not about the principle of assisted dying, but whether to vote to pass a law they know will harm vulnerable people and which experts refuse to endorse. She said the alternative is to accept that the Bill should fail and instead turn efforts towards fixing and supporting social and palliative care so that no one faces suffering and indignity at the end of their lives.
