Assisted suicide advocate: Disabled and depressed should be allowed to end their lives.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

When the assisted suicide lobby tells you that assisted death will be limited to terminally ill people who are mentally competent, they are only presenting the talking points that are designed to sell the legalization of assisted suicide. 

Janet Eastham reported for the Telegraph on November 21, 2024 that AC Grayling, an author, philosopher and outspoken advocate of assisted suicide stated that:

“If as an act of compassion you wanted to help somebody escape suffering, then why only in the last six months of a terminal illness? Why not for somebody who simply cannot come to terms with being wheelchair bound let us say? Or who is clinically depressed and is never going to be independent of medications for the rest of their lives?”

Further to that Grayling stated that he supports assisted suicide for:

“any reason” noting “tens of thousands… commit suicide every year” and asking how many of these “just make things worse for everybody… because it’s not done in a clean, quiet helpful, sympathetic way?”

Eastham reported that Grayling stated his position on a 2021 podcast:

His remarks made alongside Baroness Meacher, the group’s honorary president, were recorded for the National Secular Society podcast in 2021 and have resurfaced amid intense scrutiny of the Bill ahead of a free vote next Friday.

In the podcast, Lady Meacher dismissed measures in the Bill that ensure a High Court judge approves every death, saying “you can overdo” safeguards.

Tanni Grey-Thompson

The UK is debating a private members bill that would legalize assisted suicide that will go to a debate and vote on November 29, 2024. 

Baroness Grey-Thompson who is a former paralympian and member of the House of Lords responded by stating that:

the comments demonstrated that the legalisation puts disabled people “at risk”.

More articles on Kim Leadbeater's assisted suicide bill in the UK

• Legalizing assisted suicide could cause a seismic shift (Link). 
• UK assisted suicide bill. The vote will be close (Link). 
• The UK introduces bill to legalize assisted suicide (Link).