Care Not Killing Alliance UK seeks submissions concerning UK assisted suicide bill.

The Care Not Killing Alliance UK sent out an alert urging more people to send a submission to the UK parliament concerning their assisted suicide bill.

Care Not Killing Alliance

Five-and-a-half weeks after the second reading debate on Kim Leadbeater’s assisted suicide bill and barely two weeks until Committee stage is due to commence, the call for evidence that was authorised in November has finally been issued. To quote a former director of legislative affairs at 10 Downing Street:

“We shouldn’t have to fight for the process to be taken seriously.”

No formal deadline has been declared which could lead people to think there's no hurry, but realistically, evidence should be submitted in the next two weeks (before committee stage begins in earnest) to stand a real chance of being seen and considered.

Please consider making a submission in the coming days, especially where you are able to speak from particular experience: as a doctor or nurse, as a lawyer, as a social worker, as a pharmacist, as a carer or loved one, as a disabled person, or simply as someone who doesn’t wish to ever have to justify saying ‘no’ to assisted suicide.

The committee's members were chosen by Ms Leadbeater having voted 13-9 for the Bill. Yet this remains an important opportunity to pose difficult questions, to air challenging evidence, and to highlight deficiencies that were neglected in the rush to second reading. Remember, many who are sympathetic to the principle of a change in the law voted no because they see that this is a bad bill, while dozens of MPs who voted for the Bill at second reading “could withdraw support at the next parliamentary vote.”

What do you need to know about the call for evidence?

The Committee exists to consider “the existing clauses of the Bill and of any amendments tabled to the Bill,” so submissions “should address matters contained within the Bill and concentrate on issues where you have expertise and on factual information of which you would like the Committee to be aware.”

Your submission should be a Word document, should not exceed 2,000 words (guideline), and should consist of numbered paragraphs topped (ideally) by a brief introduction to you (or your organisation) and a summary of your evidence. Essential statistics or further details can be added as annexes, which should also be numbered.

You should be careful not to comment on matters currently (or soon to be) before a court of law.

Material already published elsewhere should not form the basis of a submission, but may be referred to (clearly referenced, preferably with a hyperlink.) Evidence which is accepted and published by the Committee becomes subject to parliamentary copyright, and you shouldn’t publish your evidence until the Committee has done so.

Most submissions are, at the Committee’s discretion, published online.

Your submission must be sent to tiabill@parliament.uk 

The covering email should include your name, address, telephone number and email address; if you don’t wish your submission to be published, you should also include your reasons.

Once the Committee is underway, amendments may be proposed and you may wish to submit further evidence on those, but you should not hold off on submitting other evidence now.

What should your evidence say?

This is not a consultation on the overarching principles of the debate – the Committee’s task is to scrutinise the Bill’s make-up, cause by clause. No-one expects you to be an expert on this bill or in the surrounding policy areas; with no set questions, we advise focusing on a select number of key areas.

Your personal or professional experience may make you well placed to explain why particular provisions in the Bill are inadequate, unworkable, or not properly thought through – for example, healthcare professionals could speak to the difficulty of predicting a six-month life expectancy, while social workers (who are overlooked by the Bill) could talk about difficulties in assessing capacity and coercion.

Non-specialists could highlight the aspect(s) of the Bill they find most startling – for example, the heavy reliance on the role of the High Court despite this being ill-defined and the courts having nowhere near the capacity needed to handle the anticipated workload.

Our briefing may give you a steer, but must not be reproduced verbatim: your submission must be an expression of your own concerns about the work ability of the Bill.

• Read the UK assisted suicide bill (Bill Link). 
• Read the Care Not Killing UK assisted suicide bill briefing (Briefing Link).

Your submission must be sent to tiabill@parliament.uk 

Links to previous articles about the UK assisted suicide bill.

• Assisted suicide is not the answer to the NHS financial crisis (Link).
• The British assisted suicide bill can be defeated (Link).
• The British parliament passes assisted suicide bill at second reading (Link).