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For the first time, the Health and Social Care Select Committee has announced it will conduct an inquiry into assisted dying.
The inquiry will see MPs examine the impact of the current blanket ban on assisted dying, something campaigners have been calling for since 2019.
Polling on the issue over the last 30 years has consistently shown around 80% of people are in favour of changing the law to allow terminally ill, mentally competent adults in their final months of life the choice to die on their own terms, subject to strict safeguards and alongside access to high-quality end-of-life care.
Family members who help loved ones fulfil their wish to die can be prosecuted
Among those who have long called for an inquiry is Joy Munns, 57, from Staffordshire, whose then 79-year-old mother Mavis Eccleston was tried and acquitted of murder and manslaughter after surviving an attempt to end her own life alongside her terminally ill husband Dennis in 2017.
Joy said: “I am glad that Parliament has finally listened to calls from my family and others affected by the injustice of our current laws. We have been failed by the ban on assisted dying and our stories must be at the very heart of this inquiry.
“When my Dad was dying in agony from bowel cancer, he desperately wanted to die on his own terms with his family around him. But he was denied that option, forced to resort to begging my Mum for help to end his suffering, with no idea that she would end up being locked in a police cell in her nightie and put in the dock for murder 18 months later. I urge members of the Committee to ask themselves how they can possibly conclude that the law is working well when this is the impact it has.”
Up to 650 terminally ill people attempt to take their own lives every year
Joy’s father is just one of hundreds of terminally ill people who attempt to take their own life very year. Indeed, data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) indicates that people with serious and potentially terminal illnesses are more than twice as likely to take their own lives than those without.
Furthermore, it is estimated that every year, 50 Brits travel to Switzerland for an assisted death, costing at least £10,000 and risking prosecution for loved ones who accompany their family member or friend.
Sarah Wootton, Chief Executive of Dignity in Dying said: “This inquiry is a victory on the road to assisted dying law reform in the UK. However, for a truly fair and evidence-based debate, it is paramount that this inquiry examines the impact of the current law and listens to the voices of those most affected; terminally ill people and their loved ones.
“Every day, dying people are being forced to make impossible decisions between suffering, suicide or seeking the compassion of another country. The message from the public to politicians couldn’t be simpler; you cannot ignore this any longer. With assisted dying legislation being considered in parliaments across the British Isles, Westminster is rightly recognising that doing nothing is simply not an option.”