VFJUK: Say NO to assisted suicide!

It’s official: Government data reveals that 1 in 5 people given less than six months to live are still alive 3 years later

Good news for those told they haven’t got long to live, of course, but in cash-strapped Britain the financial implications are proving a real headache to the benefit system, which gives special, fast-tracked payment to those with a prognosis of six months or less to live.  Apparently many, given a forecast of six months, are still alive some three years later, and the costs of maintaining the benefits for such extended periods is proving prohibitive.  Concerning though that undoubtedly is, however, the data released must surely raise concerns for The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, currently under scrutiny by the House of Commons Public Bill Committee.

To remind people, Kim Leadbeater MP, sponsor of the private members Bill to allow terminally ill adults the right to die, has said that her Bill offers ‘the strictest safeguards in the world‘.  Namely, that patients seeking to end their lives must be expected to die within 6 months, have mental capacity, that the decision be freely made, without coercion or pressure, and that the request be formally approved by two independent doctors and a judge.

All this might perhaps be reassuring, if Ms Leadbeater really could guarantee such protections, but the data now released by the Department for Work and Pensions demolishes in one fell swoop the underlying premise that you can predict with any degree of certainty the life expectancy of someone in the final stages of illness.

Alongside that, independent hospital data shows that NHS estimates of life expectancy, on which the Department for Work and Pensions assessments are based, are wrong more than half the time.  Yet it is these same criteria that will be used to assess life expectancy under the provisions of the Leadbeater Bill.  In other words, claims that the Bill will provide ‘the strictest safeguards in the world’ are meaningless, because no matter how ill a person may appear, or indeed claim to be, it is simply not possible for a doctor to assess the likely duration of his or her life.  People who choose to end their lives on such an assessment may, therefore, not just be opting to die long before their appointed time, but be making those involved in the process complicit in unlawful killing.

This is not compassion.  It is collusion in a lie in order to allow those who want to end their lives at a time of their own choosing, but don’t want to take responsibility for their actions.  The reality is that we can all kill ourselves, if we want, at any time, but assisted suicide is the demand that responsibility be transferred to another … to doctors, to the courts, to society as a whole.  It is a demand for State sponsored approval for the taking of life, and marks an unprecedented shift in constitutional accountability.

As a society we condemn the death penalty, and yet this is what ‘assisted’ suicide is – a legislatively approved licence to allow the killing of those no longer judged to have a good quality of life and/or no longer wish to live.  Kim Leadbeater says there are ironclad safeguards to prevent abuse, but the defences she claims are demonstrably inadequate – so is this naiveté, hypocrisy, or an outright lie by proponents of the Bill to get their own way?

Medical professionals are called to care for the sick, but this Bill will make them ‘executioners’ of the vulnerable and unwell.  From the evidence of other jurisdictions, where assisted suicide and euthanasia have already been legalised, we know that any supposed ‘safeguards’ will not hold – but in the shocking data released by the Department for Work and Pensions and the NHS, we now have advance confirmation of that for ourselves.

It needs only a small number of MPs for this pernicious Bill, attempting to make intentional killing a recognised part of ‘health care’, to be defeated.  Many MPs in the recent vote said they were voting in favour only because they were unsure and wanted time for debate.  If 38 of those who are ‘unsure’ change their minds and vote against, this Bill will fall.

Please, contact your MP today, making your concerns known, and ask for a face-to-face meeting in order to explain your disquiet more fully.
Don’t let Britain become a culture of death – Have your say!

Submissions should not exceed 2,000 words.  Full details and how to submit can be found here:

 https://www.parliament.uk/business/news/2025/january/terminally-ill-adults-end-of-life-bill-call-for-evidence/

Please also respond to the new Palliative and End of Life Care Commission, set up by Rachael Maskell MP to examine what are described as ‘the strengths and significant shortfalls’ in current end of life care provision.  The Commissions is calling for written submissions from doctors, hospitals, hospices, charities, disability rights organisations, and any with experience of palliative and end of life care – which means that evidence is welcomed from patients, families and carers, as well as from researchers and clinicians.  Again, please respond as soon as possible.  The closing date for submission is 28^th March
Full details and how to submit can be found here:

https://palliativecarecommission.uk

For further information about the risks of legalising assisted suicide, and help in what to say, please see our VfJUK guidance:
https://vfjuk.org/resources/endoflifeandassistedsuicide/

For help in responding to the Commission on Palliative and End of Life Care, see our Report, When End of Life Care Goes Wrong, and watch our video When Health Care Causes Death. Both can be accessed here:
https://vfjuk.org/resources/endoflifeandassistedsuicide/

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No to Woke changes to the national curriculum

 Protect the nation’s young from indoctrination. Don’t let ideology wreck
British identity and the values on which our nation is founded.

If you haven’t yet done so, please sign and share our petition today:
https://citizengo.org/en-gb/oth/14616 
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Operation Sovereign 2025
Battle for the soul of the nation

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Followers of the Way

Join us at 10.30 am,
on Sunday, 9th February

This week:

A true foundation
 

 Speaker: Steve Campbell

Registration from 10 a.m. 

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Catch up with previous FOTW services here: 
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CIDAC

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