The Prime Minister has pledged to study the details of a new assisted dying Bill as he insisted no MPs – including Labour’s Douglas McAllister and the SNP’s Brendan O’Hara – will face pressure ahead of the first Commons debate on the issue in almost a decade.
2G62X9N Labour candidate Kim Leadbeater by a canal in Huddersfield after winning the Batley and Spen by-election. Picture date: Thursday July 1, 2021.
Ready to vote – Brendan O’Hara MP, Douglas McAllister MP, Keir Starmer and KIm Leadbeater MP.
Douglas McAllister, a former Provost of West Dunbartonshire, and Brendan O’Hara, who represents Argyll and Bute, where the boundaries have been redrawn and includes Helensburgh, Cardross and Lomond.
The Catholic Church in the UK is firmly opposed to assisted dying, which it describes as “assisted suicide,” and both local MPs are from Catholic backgrounds.
Labour MP Kim Leadbeater has described her proposed legislation as the “most robust” in the world, as she stated she expects hundreds of dying people might initially opt to use a service which could see patients press a button to end their lives.
The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill will be debated and likely voted on on November 29, the first Commons vote on assisted dying since 2015.
Opposition campaigners have raised fears of coercion and a slippery slope to wider legislation taking in more people.