Two former health secretaries on Saturday night became the latest senior figures to join the growing demands for a new attempt to legalise assisted dying, as a prominent Tory said he is willing to champion the legislation in parliament.
With both former Conservative minister Stephen Dorrell and Labour’s Alan Milburn stating they back changing the law in England and Wales, the Observer understands that a Labour government would make time and expert advice available for an assisted dying bill should MPs back it in a free House of Commons vote.
The news comes as campaigners hope to hold a new vote on the issue early in the next parliament, almost 10 years after the last attempt to alter the law. Kit Malthouse, a former cabinet minister, said he was “absolutely” prepared to front a new private member’s bill on the matter.
“There has been a fairly decisive shift over the last two parliaments,” he said. “A different generation of MPs have come in and added to the high-profile voices who have campaigned on this. Doing nothing is not a passive choice. Leaving the law as it is will consign many thousands of people who may want a different end to a horrible death.”
The renewed calls for parliament to vote on a law change follow the Observer’s report on Diana Rigg’s impassioned plea to legalise assisted dying, made in a message recorded shortly before her death from cancer three years ago.
Last week, Esther Rantzen revealed how she has considered the option of assisted dying if her continuing lung cancer treatment does not improve her condition.
It is understood Labour would make time and official advice available to improve a new bill and its safeguards should it win majority support in its early parliamentary stages.
Keir Starmer, who voted in favour of a law change when the idea was defeated in 2015, recently reasserted his support for a change.
Campaigners are now calling for both main parties to pledge in their election manifestos that they will make government time for an assisted dying bill. The previous attempt to change the law came via a private member’s bill.
Milburn, who served as health secretary under Tony Blair, said: “When people today expect to have control over so many aspects of their lives, it feels paradoxical that we are denied the same about how we want to die. It’s perhaps the most important decision any of us can make. To deny that choice feels increasingly anachronistic. The time has come for a free vote in parliament on the issue.”
Dorrell, who served as health secretary under John Major and has since joined the Liberal Democrats, said: “My personal view has changed. I am in favour of it, subject to safeguards. It obviously was around as an issue all the time I was involved in various different capacities in health.
“At that time, I always took the view that this wasn’t the right time. But I think public attitudes are certainly changing. If it came up in the early stage of the next parliament, my guess is clearly it would produce a different result.”
A series of Conservative figures from across the party also spoke out in support. Small-business minister Kevin Hollinrake said he was “more inclined than ever” to back assisted dying.
Tory peer Zac Goldsmith said the law should “absolutely be aligned with the people”. He said: “No one can fail to have been deeply moved by Esther’s pleas, and although she shouldn’t have to spend her final days campaigning, many of us are grateful to her for doing so.”
Tory MP Lucy Allan said it was not right for the issue to be debated via a private member’s bill and challenged the government to prioritise the issue. “Private member’s bills are used for MPs to advance pet projects and require an MP to ‘get lucky’ in a lottery; they rarely become law,” she said. “Government cannot continue to sidestep this deeply challenging and emotive issue. It should afford parliament the opportunity to debate and vote.”
Tory minister Guy Opperman said his support for assisted dying came as he was being treated for a brain tumour, discovered after he collapsed in parliament. “Thankfully, I was one of the lucky ones and survived, but during my treatment, I met many terminally ill people who expressed a wish to end not only their life, but to end the suffering of loved ones around them … I am 110% supportive of a change in the law,” he said. “It’s the life of your choice, and the death of your choice.”
However, other senior figures such as Michael Gove have expressed doubts about any change.
Critics of an assisted dying law have also warned about the difficulties in defining who is eligible, the danger of people being pressured into a decision and subsequent attempts to widen the law.
Alistair Thompson, a spokesperson for Care Not Killing, a group that opposes assisted dying, pointed to polling that suggested public support for assisted dying may have actually fallen since the mid-1990s.
He also raised questions about the effects of the drugs used for the process in Oregon and said the law would be widened. “As we saw in the Netherlands and Belgium, limits on who qualifies for an assisted death have been swept away,” he said.
“At a time when we have seen how fragile our healthcare system is, how underfunding puts pressure on services, when up to one in four Britons who would benefit from palliative care aren’t receiving it, and when our nation’s hospices are facing a massive shortfall in their income, I would suggest this should be the focus of attention, rather than discussing again this dangerous and ideological policy.”
