British MP who supported assisted suicide, is opposing the assisted suicide bill
Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition
Naz Shah, a Labour MP who originally supported assisted suicide is opposing the Kim Leadbeater assisted suicide bill. The UK assisted suicide bill passed at second reading by a vote of 330 to 275. The bill was debated in committee where there were 393 proposed amendments with only 32 of the amendments accepted.
Shah is one of many MP’s who support assisted suicide in principle but are opposing the bill. Opposition to the bill may be the reason why Leadbeater, the sponsor of the bill, recently stated that, if passed, implementation of the assisted suicide bill would be delayed until 2029.
David Maddox, the Political Editor for The Independent, wrote an article that was published on March 30. Maddox explains why Shah is opposing the assisted suicide bill:
A Labour MP who had originally been inclined to vote in favour of Kim Leadbeater’s assisted dying legislation has claimed that the bill now has weaker safeguards than when MPs voted on it in November.
Naz Shah spoke to The Independent in the wake of the laborious and, at times, tetchy committee stage of the controversial bill being completed in parliament last Wednesday.
The Bradford West MP, who served on the committee scrutinising the bill, had hoped that safeguards could be strengthened to make it workable but now claims the legislation is “fundamentally flawed”.
Maddox further reports on why Shah opposes the assisted suicide bill
…Ms Shah has said she is “very disappointed” and “disheartened” with the direction taken after hopes they could ensure the safeguards were robust.
She revealed: “Kim [Leadbeater] is a friend and when she first told me about the bill I was inclined to vote for it. But the more I looked at the details, the more concerns I had.”
Top among these were concerns over the way people who suffer from domestic abuse and have disabilities could potentially be coerced into ending their lives early. As someone who had suffered previously from domestic abuse in a forced marriage, these issues were important to her.
Ms Shah also made headlines during the process when she was forced to leave a session because her hearing aid batteries had run flat. An attempt to push through amendments had seen the session extended despite pleas from Ms Shah that she could not take part.
Maddox reported that Shah tried to amend the bill by strengthening it’s “safeguards”
She had also backed attempts to toughen up the bill by ensuring eating disorders such as anorexia could not be given as reasons for assisted dying.
“I talked about a lot with the anorexia stuff, and that’s weakened. The amendment that [Kim Leadbeater] put in, in the capacity bit, that’s actually weakened the bill, not strengthened the bill.
“Then there’s the issue that children are now exposed, that doctors can have this [assisted death] conversation with children. You know, there’s fundamental flaws in the bill, and I just feel disheartened that I’ve gone in trying to help fix it and actually come out, not from my fault, but, you know, with it weakened.”
Maddox reported that Ms Shah was concerned that only 7 of the amendments were accepted were meaningful and none of the accepted amendments were “fundamental ones.”
