The law is broken

Whatever your views on the detail of the Rob Marris Assisted Dying Bill which will be debated tomorrow in the House of Commons, there are three irrefutable facts.

1. The current law is broken, and parliamentarians have been put on notice by the Supreme Court to address it.
2. 82% of the general public in this country support a change in the law on assisted dying for terminally ill adults
3. This Bill offers 15 safeguards

Given those facts then surely the minimum our parliamentarians can do is debate the Bill properly. This means it has to move to the next stage where it will be reviewed in detail.

If you agree contact your MP now and let them know that a)you want them to enable the debate to happen properly and b)that you support a change in the law.

As you will have spotted by the photograph above I am strongly in support of this Bill.

I think it is wrong that mentally competent terminally ill adults cannot choose the timing of their own death. Palliative care is amazing, but even the best palliative care cannot always ensure that dying people are pain free nor can it always ensure that people die in dignity. For many terminally ill people, such as the incredible Bob Cole, there comes a point when their life is not what they want it be. Bob was able to go to Dignitas but many others can’t. Bob himself highlighted in that ITV interview ‘I should have been able to do this at home’. I believe everyone should have the choice.

It concerns me that our current law is not working, with almost one terminally ill person ending their own life every day in the UK and one Briton travelling to Dignitas every fortnight.

It terrifies me that our current law has few upfront safeguards. Just look at the graphic below. How can we not change the law?

Tomorrow our parliamentarians have the opportunity to listen to and to act upon Bob’s wishes and the views of many other terminally ill people who wish to die in dignity at a time of their own choosing.

All that is being asked of our Parliamentarians is to properly debate this issue, to fix our broken law and to give choice to mentally competent adults who are terminally ill.  Contact your MP now and let them know.