Disabled activists pledge to continue to fight assisted suicide bill, after MPs vote in favour

Disabled activists have pledged to continue the fight against the legalisation of assisted suicide, despite MPs voting comfortably in favour of a bill that would allow it to be introduced in England and Wales.

The vote, by 330 MPs in favour to 275 against, means Kim Leadbeater’s private members’ bill will proceed to its committee stage.

Since Friday’s vote, reports have emerged in more than one newspaper suggesting that a significant number of MPs who voted in favour of the bill could still prevent it passing to the House of Lords next year if Leadbeater and her allies do not address their concerns.

This should provide further fuel to disabled activists who insist they can still defeat the terminally ill adults (end of life) bill.

As well as stressing their determination to fight on, many of the activists at a vigil outside the House of Commons on Friday – some of whom had been waiting in the cold for more than five hours by the time the vote was announced – spoke of how the vote had impacted them personally.

Among them was disabled actor, writer and activist Liz Carr, whose critically-acclaimed documentary about assisted suicide, Better Off Dead?, was broadcast on BBC1 in May, and who has played a key role in explaining the dangers of the legislation across the media in the lead-up to the vote.

She said on Friday that she was “completely gutted” by the vote and felt “exhausted” by the idea of now spending months more campaigning against the bill.

She said: “Having [to discuss] death, dying, your existence, your right to exist, having to justify that you’re not evil or cruel and that you don’t want people to suffer because you’re concerned about this bill is exhausting. 

“The last few days it has just been relentless: social media, going to bed late, getting up early, not sleeping.”

She said that every disabled person who attended the vigil had a story that was “every bit as compelling as those at the end of their life who have wanted this change” and who had so far had the focus of the media’s attention.

She said the media’s focus now needed to change so the concerns of opponents of the bill received more attention.

She said: “As long as certain groups of people are devalued in society, no safeguard will ever prevent them from coercion, from abuse, from mistakes which are inevitable. 

“I don’t care what the politicians say – there is this protection and that protection – it will not prevent us from unconscious bias and discrimination. 

“Absolutely we will be back and we will be saying no to this bill; it’s a weak bill. 

“Hopefully, when MPs start getting beneath the spin, they will understand that too.”

Paula Peters, a member of the national steering group of Disabled People Against Cuts (DPAC), said the vote was “devastating”, even though she was not surprised by the outcome.

She said: “We have to now regroup and plot our next strategy and fight back and continue to fight for social justice. 

“We have got to give disabled people hope in the UK that we will continue to fight for equality and social justice.

“We have got to continue to fight this bill with everything we have. 

“Disabled people will be further marginalised than they are now if they bring assisted suicide into law… it’s vital for our lives that we continue to campaign… we will continue to fight for assistance to live, not to die.”

Phil Friend, co-convenor of Not Dead Yet UK (NDY UK), the grassroots group of disabled activists which has led the fight against legalisation in the UK, said the vote announcement had felt like “a kick in the stomach”, while he said a disabled woman whose wheelchair had been next to his when the result of the vote was announced “just started sobbing”.

He said he hoped some MPs might change their minds “once they sit down with disabled people”, although he admitted that “the hill just got steeper”.

Friend said there was “no question” that disabled people had the energy to continue to fight the bill.

He said: “Disabled people are fighting to make the most of their lives every single day; this is just another issue. 

“The history of the disability movement is one of determination, of resilience, of over-coming. 

“I don’t have any doubt that it will be the same with this.”

Mary-Ellen, who has spent years fighting anti-austerity cuts, said she felt “physically sick” when she heard the result of the vote.

She said such a law would class disabled people as a “burden” and allow that to be “a reason for state-enabled suicide”, which risked normalising eugenics.

“[It would mean] it’s our duty to die rather than be a burden, that it’s a noble thing to [take our own lives] for the good of society.”

Andy Greene, a member of DPAC’s national steering group, said disabled activists now needed to make legalisation “a toxic issue” and to campaign for it to be “socially unacceptable to be part of this”.

He said: “As a movement, we need a new plan going forward. 

“We need to understand the goalposts have shifted now and react and adapt in a way that reasserts our value to society and our worth as individuals, because that is what was under scrutiny today.”

Rensa Gaunt, communications manager for Inclusion London, said: “We will keep fighting it because we have to, but it just feels like a big slap in the face.”

She said this was because disabled people were saying, “Give us what we need to have a good life,” but instead were being told: “We are cutting care packages, we are cutting benefits, but you can have assisted dying if you like.” 

Disabled activist Anna Landre said there needed to be a “targeted strategy” to work on those MPs who might change their minds and vote against the bill.

She said some MPs had already said they needed more information, “which makes sense given how this bill was rushed through in a way that was really irresponsible and negligent”.

Another disabled activist, Klint Durham, who travelled from Leeds to take part in the vigil, said after the vote: “We keep fighting. We have to put disability rights on the agenda.

“We have had years of austerity; what disabled people don’t need now is legislation to kill them. 

“We need proper support, proper funding for the NHS and social care in particular, and that is what we should be demanding from our MPs.”

Credit for this article goes to the Disability News Service