Assisted dying: how did Warwick’s MPs vote?

The House of Commons has voted to legalise assisted dying, with 330 MPs voting in favour and 275 voting against. 

The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill was put forward as a Private Members’ Bill by Labour MP Kim Leadbeater.

The aim of this legislation is to allow terminally ill adults, whose death is expected within six months, to “be provided with assistance to end their own life”. 

The bill has divided local MPs.

Coventry South MP Zarah Sultana (Labour) voted against the bill, arguing in a statement on X that the bill’s “lack of adequate safeguards” posed “significant risks” to the vulnerable. Sultana claimed that “underfunding and inequities in health and social care” could lead to marginalised communities feeling “undue pressure to consider assisted death”. 

She stated: “Without significant investment in compassionate, universally accessible end-of-life care, legislative changes on assisted dying would be premature and risk exacerbating existing inequalities.”

Coventry North West MP Taiwo Owatemi (Labour), along with Kenilworth and Southam MP Jeremy Wright (Conservative), also voted against the bill.

I believe the Bill is absolutely robust and will not lead to a ‘slippery slope’

Matt Western, Warwick and Leamington MP

However, Warwick and Leamington MP Matt Western (Labour) voted in favour of the bill, describing the decision as “difficult” and “personal”. In his statement, he said he supported assisted dying “in principle”, but added that the issue required “further exploration and discussion” at later stages of the legislative process. 

On the issue of safeguards, he stated: “I believe the Bill is absolutely robust and will not lead to a ‘slippery slope’.”

We are both appalled and angry about the decision of MPs to pass this dangerous piece of legislation that will imperil the lives of thousands of disabled people if it becomes law

Nye Steele and Mads Wainman, Warwick SU’s co-Disabled Students’ Officers

In a statement to The Boar, Warwick SU’s co-Disabled Students’ Officers, Nye Steele and Mads Wainman, said: “We are both appalled and angry about the decision of MPs to pass this dangerous piece of legislation that will imperil the lives of thousands of disabled people if it becomes law.

“The proponents of this bill argue that it gives some chronically ill people ‘the right to choose to die’, but this ‘choice’ takes place in the context of years of austerity cuts to the welfare state and the NHS.

“This will lead to huge amounts of formal and informal pressure on disabled people to end their own lives rather than accessing the high-quality palliative care that they deserve and need and which the bill makes no mention of adequately funding.

“By ignoring the vocal opposition to the bill from disability rights organisations and refusing to acknowledge the right of disabled people to live with dignity, MPs have voted to continue the poisonous and deeply ableist legacy of austerity.”

The bill is now in its committee stage, and will be voted on again by MPs during its third reading.