Don’t be taken in. Campaigners try to create an impression that the herd is moving their way, hoping to set off a stampede. “‘Chaotic’ assisted dying bill at risk over High Court U-turn”, goes one headline this week. But as the assisted dying bill makes its slow way through detailed scrutiny in Kim Leadbeater’s committee, it’s not happening. Only in the pages of the Tory press are MPs stampeding: actual MPs seem to be moving little, and if anything in favour, according to the campaign group Dignity in Dying. The vote at second reading was won by 55.
Leadbeater’s amendment to replace a high court judge’s approval for an assisted death with a panel of three professionals – a psychiatrist, social worker and lawyer – set off an avalanche of claims that this was tipping the vote against her. Here’s the Mail’s headline: “Social workers to sit on ‘death panels’ in Labour MP’s watered-down assisted dying bill”. Social workers! According to the Mail’s story, MPs who had previously backed the bill “said they were now thinking again amid an angry backlash”. The Times quoted 10 Labour MPs signing a protest, without mentioning that these 10 MPs were always against assisted dying.
