Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
Debate between Paula Barker and Chi Onwurah(2 days, 13 hours ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Dame Chi Onwurah
No, I will not take any interventions, thank you.
I particularly fear the impact on the most vulnerable and disadvantaged—those without the social capital of so many arguing for the Bill. There seems to be an assumption that those who have been most unequal in life will suddenly be rendered equal in death, but the least valued by society are often those who value themselves the least. We know that the last year of life is so often the most expensive for the NHS and the most distressing for friends and family; why not save everyone the trouble of being a burden? This Bill lacks the safeguards, which we must have, to deal with the reality that there are powerful economic and personal incentives for both the state and family members to encourage the vulnerable into taking their own lives.
We should specifically consider the impact on ethnic communities: we know the prism of racist assumptions through which healthcare has too often been administered —the huge inequalities in maternal health and mental health, to name just two examples. There is nothing in this Bill to protect the vulnerable and those whose experience of life and death has already been biased.
Finally, to vote against this Bill is not to accept the status quo. It is not our job now to propose a better Bill—that was on Report and at Committee stage—it is our job to judge the Bill as it is, and that is why I say to hon. Members, please, do not vote for this Bill.