Shona Craven: Is winter good timing for assisted dying debate?

The very next day, the Mail on Sunday struck rather a different tone. “Assisted dying bill set to be ‘rushed into law’”, it proclaimed, reporting that “a deeply divisive vote to legalise assisted dying could be held within weeks after Sir Keir Starmer backed plans to fast-track it through the Commons.”

Two right-wing newspapers, two strikingly different slants. Online, the Mail did not hold back, embedding high up in its report an image of a futuristic “assisted dying machine” as if to suggest the old and vulnerable might soon simply be loaded into such contraptions and blasted into space (when in fact its own reporting reveals this particular device has yet to be used).

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One could be forgiven for thinking that Keir Starmer’s government was set to table an assisted dying bill, and perhaps even planning to whip Labour MPs into supporting it to “fast-track” its progress.

In fact, the PM has reportedly merely offered two extra staff members to any Labour MP wishing to take the opportunity to table a private member’s bill on the issue, which would lead to a free vote by MPs.

This is significant because several Labour MPs are among the first in line to table such bills – which was to be expected given the size of the party’s majority. Those near the top of the list have yet to say what topics their bills would address while Jake Richards MP, who has indicated he would push for assisted dying, is languishing in 11th place.

It might seem unsatisfactory that luck of the draw dictates whether and when such an important issue is discussed, but that is how the system works. In Scotland, assisted dying is already on the agenda at Holyrood thanks to a member’s bill from LibDem Liam McArthur and here, too, politicians will be free to vote with their consciences.

Campaigners for assisted dying north of the Border will now be watching developments in England and Wales with great interest, and perhaps some trepidation.

The Daily Express launched its assisted dying campaign, Give Us Our Last Rights, in February 2022. It seeks the legalisation of assisted dying in very specific circumstances, but the Daily Mail insists that even “a law to allow terminally-ill adults with a life expectancy of less than six months to end their lives with medical help would spark an intense moral debate over the sanctity of human life and the risks of the legislation being abused”.

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Indeed it would, but this acknowledges that there would indeed be a debate, contrary to what its alarmist headline might suggest. The newspaper may object to MPs having the opportunity to vote on assisted dying, but “fast-tracking” suggests a chaotic and rushed process, when in fact the route proposed is the only realistic way the issue will be discussed at all.

Esther Rantzen will be delighted to see progress on this issue – she says Starmer told her he hoped she would be alive to see the debate take place – but she must surely wish it was not coming amid the ongoing furore about Winter Fuel Payments being stripped from millions of pensioners.

There can be no perfect timing for a debate on this emotive issue, but those seeking to maintain the status quo may well seek to exploit the anger and sense of betrayal felt by many as temperatures begin to drop.

Labour may now be cynically disavowing their own previous warnings that restricting the payments to pensioners on benefits would cost 4000 lives, but the optics of pushing assisted dying up the political agenda right now, when they are being accused of letting pensioners freeze to death, are far from ideal.

The Daily Mail’s scaremongering might help shift some extra copies to elderly people who fear they may be coerced into ending their lives, but it is giving the false impression that legislation will be drafted in haste – something that its readers (and the rest of us) have every right to fear.

One only need look at countries like Canada, with its dystopian Medical Assistance in Dying programme, to see what can go wrong.

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This is why the third attempt at changing the law in Scotland has been very carefully drafted. The title of McArthur’s bill – the Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill – spells out its very specific and narrow parameters, to guard against future amendments that may represent the “slippery slope” some people justifiably fear.

Polling has found 78% of the Scottish public are in favour of “making it legal for someone to seek assisted dying”, and in England and Wales support is similarly strong at 75%.

Were you to ask those same people if they favoured “fast-tracking” legislation on this issue, you might receive different answers, so it is to be hoped calm, reasoned debate will drown out misleading claims, and alarmist headlines do not sway MPs.