Speaking ahead of the Second Reading of the assisted suicide Bill, crossbench peer Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson has discussed the potential impact of the Bill on people with disabilities.
The multi-gold-medal-winning paralympic athlete and advocate for disability rights was an expert panellist exploring the question: Is the Assisted Suicide Bill about Compassion, Giving Choice and Dignity?
“We’re being told [the Bill] is not for disabled people,” she said. “Disabled people are very easily able to fit into the six-month diagnosis. We already have doctors in the UK talking about terminal anorexia. If a patient with anorexia doesn’t take treatment, they could very easily have a six-month diagnosis. Someone with Type 1 diabetes could fit into this if they stopped taking their meds. For someone like me, if I had a pressure sore and it didn’t heal, I could fit into this qualification very easily…
“My really strong message is to MPs, if in any doubt, say ‘no’ right now. Don’t just vote it through on principle, because the regulations get decided in something called secondary legislation and negative instruments, which means they never come back to Parliament, so Parliament doesn’t get to see the regulations and how they’ll be enacted.
“I think it’s a dangerous Bill. It’s certainly not the right time for it. I think disabled people are very understandably extremely worried about where we are right now.”
The Catholic Union of Great Britain organised the discussion that took place at Farm Street Church in London on Sunday, 24 November 2024.
The other expert panellists contributing were:
Professor David Albert Jones
Professor of Bioethics
Dr Matthew Doré
Consultant Palliative Care Physician
Professor Julian Hughes
Former Consultant Old Age Psychiatrist
You can watch the full discussion on the Catholic Union’s YouTube channel.
High resolution photographs are available on our Flickr channel.
