Assisted Dying, Assisted Suicide or Eugenics? Danny Kruger MP Diane Abbot MP. Commandment overturned

Pro-assisted dying group has its origins in eugenics – and it all revolves around your favourite chocolate company

https://www.thecanary.co/long-read/2024/11/19/assisted-dying-debate-uk/#google_vignette

It’s not only Millard and Ponsonby Dignity in Dying has seemingly hidden from its history. Co-founder of VES Dr Charles John Bond was a consultant surgeon at Leicestershire Royal Infirmary. Crucially, he was another Eugenics Society associate, member, fellow, and vice-president.

Bond sat on the Committee to establish the Bureau of Human Heredity and wrote a number of racist eugenics-orientated publications. For instance, this included one titled: ‘Causes of Racial Decay’.

In a 1930 speech at the Modern Churchmen’s conference, Bond’s ableist, classist eugenicist beliefs were on full display. He purportedly told the conference that:

sterilisation… should be applied to cases of irresponsible persons of
low intelligence and weak will.

In short, Dignity in Dying began life as an organisation neck-deep in the racist eugenics movement. Naturally, it’s not a fact the group likes to shout about today.

U.K. MPs vote to legalize assisted dying, but critics point to Canada as cautionary tale

https://politicsthisweek.wordpress.com/2024/11/28/not-the-bcfm-politics-show-presented-by-tony-gosling-218/

Critics say historic British legislation could create ‘slippery slope’

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada-united-kingdom-medical-assistance-in-death-1.7392502

On Friday, MPs gave their approval to a bill that gives terminally ill adults in England and Wales with fewer than six months to live and the assistance of a doctor the right to end their lives.

Some people see Canada's expanding provisions for medical assistance in dying (MAID) as an example of what they feel could go wrong if the legislation is passed. Others are saying the strictness of the language in the British bill will safeguard England and Wales against going the way of Canada's experience.

"We've got the benefit in this country of looking at what other countries have done," Labour MP Kim Leadbeater told ITV's Good Morning Britain.

"And I'm not looking at the model that is going on in Canada. I'm looking at those other jurisdictions where this is done well and in some cases it's been done for a long time, very well, and the criteria have never been extended."

MAID was legalized across Canada in 2016 for those whose death was "reasonably foreseeable."

Expanded in 2021, the law as Canadians know it today no longer requires the person applying to have a terminal diagnosis in order to be eligible.

For critics of the U.K.'s bill, which has divided opinions across the political spectrum, the concerns range from a lack of safeguards to lawmakers not being given enough time to review its language.

Leadbeater introduced the bill to the House of Commons on Oct. 16 and published its full text on Nov. 11.

"At the heart of this is choice, it's autonomy. It's addressing a status quo which is not fit for purpose and it's the rights of those terminally ill people who do not have long left to live just having the choice that I believe they deserve," Leadbeater told the BBC on Nov. 12.

Recently, U.K. Justice Minister Shabana Mahmood wrote a letter to constituents calling it a "slippery slope to death on demand" and strongly voiced her plans to vote against the bill, despite calls from Prime Minister Keir Starmer for cabinet neutrality.

Tanni Grey-Thompson, a Paralympic athlete and member of the House of Lords, says her concerns lie with the message she believes this legislation will send to the disabled community, should it pass.

"I worry about the impact on disabled people who don't feel they will have a choice but to end their lives because the U.K. is not necessarily a great place for disabled people to live," says Grey-Thompson.

People with disabilities in the U.K. continue to face discrimination, according to a 2023 report by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), which found persistent barriers to access to transport, the justice system and sporting and cultural venues.

The language in the law being proposed specifies assisted dying would only be afforded to the terminally ill, which does not include someone with a mental disorder or physical disability.

But Grey-Thompson says laws can be changed.

"We've seen in places like Canada, it's changed quite a lot…. It's possible for a huge number of people to potentially ask for this."

She adds the widening of the law in Canada is concerning.

Currently, Canada's Bill C-14 does not require a terminal diagnosis and is open to those plagued by "physical or psychological suffering."

However, expansion of Canada's MAID program for those with a mental illness has been delayed until March 2027.

The federal government has announced it’s hitting the brakes on expanding medical assistance in dying to those suffering solely from mental health issues, saying Canada’s health system is not ready...