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Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey has revealed that caring for his dying mother as a teenager convinced him against assisted suicide, as MPs prepare for a historic vote on the issue.
In a moving interview, the former minister spoke of his fears that the terminally ill, those with disabilities and others “could feel under a real pressure psychologically to end their lives”.
His mother had been in a lot of pain towards the end of her life, he said, revealing that she had a had a “very, very painful disease”.
But he said it was being with her in those final days that “I came to the conclusion we should not have this … we should focus on better palliative care”.
Cabinet ministers are split on a bill on assisted dying, which MPs are due to vote on at the end of this month.
Ed Miliband, the energy secretary, said on Tuesday that he supported the move to make assisted suicide legal. But the two secretaries of state who will be responsible for any new law have voiced their opposition.
Health secretary Wes Streeting has said he intends to vote against the Bill, voicing fears over coercion and people feeling a “duty to die”.
Shabana Mahmood, the justice secretary, has also spoken against assisted dying and voted against it in 2015.
The Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby has also warned of legalisation leading to a “slippery slope” in terms of who is eligible.
Sir Keir Starmer has indicated he is yet to decide on the proposed law, although he has spoken in favour of the idea in the past.
The new assisted dying Bill claims to be the “most robust” in the world.
Only terminally ill adults with less than six months to live and who have a settled wish to end their lives would be eligible.
The Labour MP behind the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill said hers was the only Bill in the world with “three layers of scrutiny” – a sign-off by two doctors and one High Court judge.
Kim Leadbeater said the proposed legislation for England and Wales would offer the “safest choice” for mentally competent adults at the end of their lives and insisted it was robust enough to protect against coercion.
But critics claim the proposed legislation is being “rushed with indecent haste” and that MPs will not have enough time to properly scrutinise it before the November 29 debate and vote.
In an interview with the BBC’s Today programme, Sir Ed said that he thought as a society “we do need to talk about death more”.
But he said that “having wrestled with this issue for most of my life”, he feared that too many “could feel under a real pressure psychologically to end their lives… they could feel themselves a burden. And I feel if we take this decision, I think those people would be less free because of that psychological burden”.
He added: “I had to look after my mother when she was terminally ill as a young teenager … she had a very, very painful disease.”
It was in being there at the end of her life that “I came to the conclusion we should not have this (assisted dying).. we should focus on better palliative care.”
He warned a combination of people feeling a burden and the problems in the palliative care system could mean people “may feel they have no choice but to end their lives”.
Sir Ed, who also spoke about his disabled son, said he wanted “a society where those people feel valued.. I want people who are disabled to feel more valued. And I really think this approach … could undermine that.”
