MPs on both sides of the assisted dying debate have called for improvements in palliative care, regardless of whether Parliament ultimately legalizes it.
Layla Moran, who supported the bill during its second reading on Friday, and Diane Abbott, who did not, agreed that more funding is needed to improve end-of-life care during a joint interview on the Today program BBC Radio 4.
“I’m very concerned that vulnerable people will be drawn into the assisted dying route when what they really need is access to hospice care and good end-of-life care,” Abbott said.
While she said she sympathized with the opposing view, the Labor MP said she wanted people “not to see assisted suicide as the only option” if they had concerns about being a “burden” or concerns about family finances .
“When we think about choices, we must also think about the choice of people who, if they could get support, could end their lives peacefully and happily,” Abbott added.
But, she said, many could be pushed toward assisted dying “either because they don’t want to be a burden or because they worry about their families’ finances being drained by the cost of care.” She said some may even worry about “taking up the hospital bed.”
Abbott added: “I think they should have a real choice and not see assisted suicide as the only option.”
During Friday’s parliamentary debate, Moran called on Health Secretary Wes Streeting to ‘put firm commitments on the table’ on palliative care. tackle this”. The chairman of the health and social care committee said: “I say to the Secretary of State, who is in his seat, the gauntlet has been thrown.”
Speaking to Radio 4 on Saturday, she said she was disappointed not to have heard such a policy announcement from Streeting.
The Liberal Democrat MP explained her decision to vote in favor of the bill, which received the support of a majority of MPs on Friday: “I have been moved by personal experiences. My best friend’s mother was diagnosed with cancer about twenty years ago. I saw how it was so important for her to regain that little bit of control over her life.
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“But I would also like to say that even though I voted for it, I think we all want this to be a good bill. I hope that colleagues across the House – especially those who voted in favor – reserve the right to vote No at a later stage, and those who are against it, those who have made arguments against it, we must take them extremely seriously. What I am particularly interested in is palliative care.”
Speaking to the BBC, the president of the Association for Palliative Medicine of Great Britain and Ireland, Dr. Sarah Cox, Saturday: “Health Secretary Wes Streeting said part of the reason he could not vote for assisted dying was that palliative care was not available. good enough. So I would like to say to him: this is the time to solve that.”
Cox, whose organization opposes the bill, added: “It is often claimed that Britain has the best palliative care in the world – but that is no longer the case. We’re not getting the funding we need.”