Campbell swings Lords on assisted dying

By Sunil Peck

An impassioned speech by a disabled peer in the House of Lords has thrown the issue of assisted dying into sharp relief.

In July, peers rejected an amendment to the coroners and justice bill proposed by Lord Falconer, which could have allowed people to help a disabled person to travel to a country to die without the threat of prosecution.

Peers voted against the amendment by 194 votes to 141.

Baroness Campbell of Surbiton, the disabled peer who spoke against the amendment in the chamber, told Disability Now that she had heard conversations in the Lords and read articles in the press that assumed that the lives of disabled people who could not live without the assistance of another human being must be intolerable. She said that such talk reflected “pretty scary times” for disabled people and wanted to secure the right for others like herself to gain more support and palliative care and live a dignified life.

“I’m not in favour of assisted dying while the culture is dominated by non-disabled people who feel they’d rather be dead than live a life where they have difficulty breathing without assistance and people take them to the toilet. What I’m trying to do is take the mystery out of severe disability.”

But Debbie Purdy, who has multiple sclerosis and is seeking legal clarification about whether her husband would face prosecution if he helped her travel abroad to die, said that she was “extremely disappointed” that the amendment had been defeated in the Lords.

She said that as the law stands, she will die early because she will need to travel to Switzerland while she is physically able to do so without needing her husband’s assistance.

She told Disability Now that the issue of assisted dying boiled down to the individual’s right to choose whether to live or die.

“I want my life to be as long and as happy as it can be. But when the pain and spasms outweigh the fun, I want to be able to choose to end my life and take the consequences. I don’t want my husband to take them.”

Debbie Purdy vowed to pursue all the options available to make sure that her husband could help her to die without endangering himself legally.