VIDEO: Baroness Grey-Thompson on how assisted suicide legislation could easily include disabled people
Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson has discussed the potential impact of the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill on people with disabilities, describing it as a “dangerous” Bill that has left disabled people “extremely worried” about its implications. The crossbench peer, a multi-gold-medal-winning paralympic athlete and advocate for disability rights, appeared on a panel exploring the The post VIDEO: Baroness Grey-Thompson on how assisted suicide legislation could easily include disabled people appeared first on Catholic Herald.
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Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson has discussed the potential impact of the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill on people with disabilities, describing it as a “dangerous” Bill that has left disabled people “extremely worried” about its implications.
The crossbench peer, a multi-gold-medal-winning paralympic athlete and advocate for disability rights, appeared on a panel exploring the question of “Is the Assisted Suicide Bill about Compassion, Giving Choice and Dignity?”
She highlights that if the Bill is passed, due to the way the UK legislative system works, Parliament doesn’t get to see any subsequent changes and regulations or how they’ll be enacted – wherein lies the significant risk for disabled people who could find their condition suddenly fitting the changing terms of legislation let loose by the Bill.
Furthermore, she highlights, this risk applies to anyone experiencing particular physical conditions, such as diabetes or anorexia, that could eventually be deemed to come within the remit for assisted suicide.
The discussion was organised by the Catholic Union of Great Britain and staged at Farm Street Church in London on 24 November, ahead of the Second Reading of the assisted suicide Bill on Friday, 29 November.
“We’re being told [the Bill] is not for disabled people,” Baroness Grey-Thompson said, before explaining why that isn’t the case.
“Disabled people are very easily able to fit into the six-month diagnosis. We already have doctors in the UK talking about terminal anorexia. If a patient with anorexia doesn’t take treatment, they could very easily have a six-month diagnosis.
“Someone with Type 1 diabetes could fit into this if they stopped taking their meds. For someone like me, if I had a pressure sore and it didn’t heal, I could fit into this qualification very easily.
“My really strong message to MPs is, if in any doubt, say ‘no’ right now. Don’t just vote it through on principle, because the regulations get decided in something called secondary legislation and negative instruments, which means they never come back to Parliament, so Parliament doesn’t get to see the regulations and how they’ll be enacted.
“I think it’s a dangerous Bill. It’s certainly not the right time for it. I think disabled people are very understandably extremely worried about where we are right now.”
Grey-Thompson isn’t the only baroness oppose the Bill. Baroness Theresa May, along with three other former prime ministers, have all recently spoken out against, or been reported to oppose, the Bill as it currently stands.
Photo: Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson (right), alongside Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, at Buckingham Palace, London, England, 13 December 2016. (Photo by Arthur Edwards – WPA Pool / Getty Images.)
The post VIDEO: Baroness Grey-Thompson on how assisted suicide legislation could easily include disabled people appeared first on Catholic Herald.
