how your MPs voted on the assisted dying bill which went through parliament today

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00:00There is a rational fear of the reality of coercion and what drives decisions within

00:06families, what individuals feel is best for their family. There is a rational fear of

00:10how institutional pressures, lack of resources and, appallingly, culture within the NHS might

00:19ramp up the convenience of death as an affordable option. This is not a new fear, and the hon.

00:27Member for York Central mentioned this. Baroness Neuberger's review into the Liverpool care

00:32pathway said that in order that everyone dying in the acute sector can do so with dignity,

00:38the present situation has to change. That was in 2013. We know in the aftermath of covid

00:44how little has changed. Death as an institutional convenience has never been and never will

00:52be right. It is our duty to demand good palliative care, to address the institutional barriers

01:00and the resource barriers to good palliative care.

01:04But this is not a licence to sidestep today's moral question. The people of England and

01:10Wales now expect us as legislators to provide an answer in principle. It is our duty to

01:16provide that answer not only in principle but also in process. With this in mind, I

01:23will support this Bill at second reading if there is a guarantee of sufficient scrutiny

01:29to stitch together a complete garment out of what are presently threads and patches

01:35that could, as we heard, be rent asunder in court. If Bill committee scrutiny cannot make

01:41this Bill robust, I will reconsider my support at future votes.

01:46The implications for Wales, where health is, of course, devolved, cry out for proper consideration.

01:51I support the hon. Member for Gowers and St Pancras in her concerns about the Sewel convention

01:56and the need for a legislative consent motion in the Senate.

01:58I want to pay credit to Iola Dorkin of Morfyn Efin, whom I have known for over 30 years

02:04and who is presently dying of motor neurone disease. She wears a brace that her husband

02:09has adapted to make her more comfortable. Today, she is on respite in a hospice in Holyhead,

02:16that is 50 miles away from her home. That is the reality of people's lives as things

02:21stand. We need a change in the law.

02:24Assisted dying is already occurring in unregulated ways, with up to 650 terminally ill people

02:30taking their own lives each year, often in traumatic circumstances causing additional

02:36pain for their loved ones. This Bill promotes freedom of choice at the end of life in a

02:42controlled and regulated manner. Does my hon. Friend agree that legal assisted dying would

02:48provide essential safeguards where there currently are none?

02:54I have grappled with this. I still do. When my hon. Friend the Member for Spen Valley

03:01was speaking earlier, I had a packet of tissues and I made swift work of them. It really is

03:08so difficult for so many of us, with personal experience. It is genuinely our privilege

03:14to be able to say that this is what we want or what we do not want. We may not be facing

03:20that right now in our lives. I will be voting for the Bill today. When you are, you think

03:29about it deeply. I think about this all the time. I really need to get a bit of a life,

03:35but it really is something that bothers me.

03:39I have to say that it is not easy. I want everybody out there to know that it is not

03:47easy. It is really difficult, and it is difficult for those on opposing sides. The Bill places

03:54multiple duties on the Secretary of State in England around code of practices and providing

03:59assistance with the NHS. The Welsh Government need to be happy with the Secretary of State

04:05in England in deciding how services are provided within the Welsh NHS. There will need to be

04:11an amendment, which I suspect will then engage with a civil convention.

04:16The need for subordinate legislation to enact this Bill is really complicated, and we need

04:21to see how this will be passed here in this place. There are issues around the code of

04:27practice, because some of them have devolved. I just want to highlight that today, because

04:34we need to be mindful that, regardless of the emotional stories that we are going to

04:38be hearing in this place, it does have an impact on legislation in Wales. It is very

04:43important that, when this Bill goes through, or if it does go through today, that those

04:49discussions are had, because everybody's lives matter and we have to get this legislation

04:56right.

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