Many of you have written in about assisted dying – and over the past few months I’ve had hundreds of emails about the issue.
First of all, nobody wants to be in agony at the end of their life – or see their loved ones in agony. And no one wants to see anyone put to death erroneously or unjustly.
And across two long debates in the House of Commons and hearing dozens of speeches, I know that no one on either side of the argument is coming to this issue from a position of anything but compassion.
If you, or a loved one, is suffering, my heart goes out to you. The emails and letters I’ve read are, without exception, powerful and well argued.
Yet I am in a position where I have to make a judgement call: do I vote to make it legal for doctors to end life?
It’s one of the hardest decisions I’ve had to make in twenty years.
My decision, as many of you know, is to vote against this.
I think the risks are too great.
I fear that people who are ill and low may see no purpose in their life and won’t want to be a burden to family and friends. They may decide it’s their duty to end their life because it’s the done thing. The default.
And there are those who will feel pressure to end their lives years before their time.
The safeguards in the legislation I voted against in November have been weakened, not strengthened.
Amendments against excluding eating disorders or those with Down Syndrome, for example, were voted against by supporters of the legislation.
This is a bill which will make it easily to alleviate suffering. But it’s a bill which seems to be rushed through Parliament and would represent a fundamental change in society.
That isn’t something that should be decided by three or four votes by MPs when it didn’t even appear in the government’s manifesto.
As ever, thanks for getting in touch – and feel free to let me know what you think in the comments or via my website.
