On Friday, after a worryingly truncated debate, Members of Parliament in the House of Commons voted in favour of the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, which for brevity I will refer to as the Assisted Dying Bill or ADB from here on. By passing this Bill the Commons has crossed a monstrous Rubicon and if this bill is eventually given Royal Assent then I predict that it’s existence in law will create a situation with regards the state killing of the vulnerable as occurs in places like the Netherlands and Canada,

I’ve read this Bill and there are so many loopholes and clauses that create concern that it’s clear to me and many others that this Bill should not become law. The removal of the possibility of civil suits against doctors by the relatives and friends of the people the doctors have killed and the removal of the ability of Coroners to look into the details of the circumstances of those who’ve been killed are just a couple of the clauses that look to me very open to both abuse and the removal of accountability from those who’ve taken part in these killings.

There is also the removal of doctors ability to say that they want nothing to do with the killing of the vulnerable. If they refuse a patient’s allegedly ‘voluntary’ request to die then they MUST hand the case over to a doctor who does agree with the killing of the vulnerable. This will morally implicate any doctor who doesn’t want to engage in state sanctioned killing in said killing as the refusing doctor will then need to search out a medic who will kill.

Many of the so-called ‘safeguards’ in this Bill are likely to end up as anything but. I suspect that there will be less policing of coercion by those who may stand to benefit from the death of others than many may surmise. Proving coercion in such cases is going to be difficult and it’s likely that the State will take no interest in investigating such cases unless the evidence is grossly clear. We are likely to end up with a situation where people are going to be coerced or guilt-tripped or gaslighted into agreeing to their own deaths and little will be done to either investigate or prevent such coercion nor stop the deaths that will come from such actions.

Then there is the uncertainty of diagnosis. There are plenty of examples out there if you care to look of people who have been given six months to live due to a terminal illness but have lived far longer. Diagnosing the exact time of death is not an exact science and is something that doctors often get wrong. Even in cases of advanced cancer where the patient is in the final stages of life it has been noted in a study to be found on the US National Library for Health that even with those medics who are familiar with end of life situations, such as palliative care nurses and doctors, it’s not always easy get the exact time of death predictions correct. I shudder to think of the hundreds, possibly thousands of people who are going to be robbed of what might be for them and their families useful life-time because a doctor or two might, as is very likely, get the time of a person’s demise completely or partially wrong.

This is a bad and dangerous Bill. The provisions on who this potential law will apply to will without a doubt be extended. They will be extended from the over 18’s who are terminally ill to the under 18’s and those with chronic but survivable conditions and those with mental illnesses. This is not just me being hyperbolic as this is what has happened in other jurisdictions that have legalised the state killing of the vulnerable.

This Bill would be bad law even in countries that were perfect, countries that had high quality palliative care or adult social care or a healthcare system that worked as reasonably perfectly as it should do. In a country like the UK where the palliative care system is supported mostly by charity, where adult social care is a Cinderella service and whose record for the effective and humane care of the mentally ill is virtually non-existent, the ability for the State to kill the vulnerable is going to be an absolute disaster. If every there was a Bill that is almost guaranteed to created injustice, tragedy and horror it is this one. Shame on the appalling Kim Leadbetter for bringing this Bill to the Commons and even more shame on the politicians of all parties who have voted for it. Let’s hope that this appalling bill can get neutered during the Committee and House of Lords stages of its passage through Parliament.