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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Politics
Michael Savage Policy Editor

‘One conversation really changed my mind’: the personal stories driving MPs’ decisions on assisted dying

Black man reaches over to a tree hung with labels reading 'My dying wish is…' (one says: 'To be able to decide for myself when and how to die peacefully with opportunity to say goodbye to those I love')
Part of a campaign launched by Dignity in Dying Scotland which urges MSPs to ‘Let Us Choose’. Photograph: Murdo MacLeod/the Guardian

During a Labour away day ahead of the last election, the party’s candidates were put through their paces as parliamentary debaters. The topic chosen, assisted dying, was a deliberately intractable issue designed to test their analytical skills. Yet just months later, scores of new MPs find themselves having to make a very real decision over changing the law.

“I’m genuinely the most back and forth on this that I’ve been on anything,” said one new MP who has found themselves on either side of the debate over recent months. Like so many, with the issues so finely balanced in their mind, a single conversation can sway their thinking.

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