Chiswick’s MPs vote on opposite sides of the debate as MPs reject Assisted Dying bill

A crowded chamber for the debate on Friday; image: parliamentlive.tv

Andy Slaughted voted for, while Rupa Huq voted against

MPs have voted against a bill to legalise assisted dying for the second time, bringing and end to its passage through parliament.

The vote was close – 286 to 270. Andy Slaughter, MP for Hammersmith & Chiswick, whose constituency includes most of Chiswick, voted for it, as did Brentford and Isleworth MP Ruth Cadbury. Rupa Huq, whose constituency includes the rest of Chiswick, voted against.

The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, tabled by Labour MP Lauren Edwards,would have allowed adults with fewer than six months to live to apply to be given help to end their own life, subject to certain safeguards.

Esther Rantzen, its best known and most vocal supporter, pleaded with MPs to pass it in an emotional statement on Thursday. The 86 year old former broadcaster who has stage four lung cancer said she had signed up with Dignitas to end her own life in Switzerland but she is now to frail to make the journey. She would have had to go alone.

“Unfortunately, when I was strong enough to make the flight and go to Dignitas, my life was not unbearably painful, indeed I was able to relax in my beloved cottage in the New Forest,” she said.

“And by the time life did become unbearable, I was too physically fragile to make the journey and go through the Dignitas process”.

Andy Slaughter MP

Andy Slaughter told The Chiswick Calendar:

“I voted for the Bill as I did last year (it is the same Bill) because I believe in the right of individuals to make decisions about their own lives (and deaths) without the state or other agencies preventing that.

“The vote was very close, and I hope it may open the way to a more consensual discussion on how terminally ill people can end their lives without the pain, indignity and loss of control that many currently face”.

Ruth Cadbury MP; image: parliamentlive.tv

Ruth Cadbury, who represented most ofChiswick until the last general election when constituency boundary changes took W4 out of her constituency, told us she was very disappointed the bill had been voted down.

Speaking in the debate on Friday (11 September) she told fellow MPs she had supported the bill in 2015 and was doing so again, confident that it had been improved significantly by all the work that had been done on its passage through parliament.

She said her resolve to support it had been strengthened by those she had heard from with direct experience, one a constituent whose brother had cancer and whose one request was that his death would not be prolonged and painful.

“He received excellent care from an amazing team at the hospice, but sadly when the time came he suffered in a way no human should have to”, she told the Chamber. Her constituent said:

“We don’t allow our pets to suffer the way he did. His acute suffering and pain lasted for four days. When he was able to, he pleaded for help for the pain to stop. The hospice did everything possible to help but there are legal limits to what they can do”.

Rupa Huq MP

Rupa Huq, MP for Ealing Central and Acton, has consistently opposed the bill because in practical terms she does not think the NHS could cope with the extra strain administering assisted dying would bring.

[It is the] ‘Wrong time’, she wrote on social media. ‘We need to fix palliative care before tackling assisted dying’.

‘Health inequalities – I saw with my own late mum and dad first hand how vulnerable communities like ethnic minorities and the disabled can be treated in the NHS. Assisted dying would only worsen this’.‘

‘Lack of safeguards – Even if you support the principle of assisted dying, this Bill does not contain enough protections. It should not be rammed through with indecent haste today.‘We need to get this 100% right if we are going to do it at all’.In the end it was the arguments on her side of the debate that swayed the vote.