New research from Whitestone Insight has suggested that support for the controversial assisted suicide bill in Westminster has dropped even among MPs who voted for it last year.
The bill is failed to pass in the House of Lords following Commons approval last year. However, the poll by Whitestone suggests that should the bill go back to the Commons, only 40 per cent of MPs would support it.
The poll, which questioned 102 MPs, also suggests that nearly half of MPs (49%) have concerns that legalising assisted suicide would lead to pressure on the elderly and the disabled, a common fear raised by campaigners.
Campaigners in favour of the bill, such as Lord Falconer, have suggested that the House of Commons use the Parliament Act to force the bill through, should the Lords reject or simply time out the bill.
Such a move would be unlikely to succeed however, as the Whitestone polling suggest a majority of MPs (61%) accept the right of the Lords to block the bill, which was not in Labour’s manifesto.
The apparent decline in support for the bill among MPs appears to be driven by concerns or outright opposition to the proposal from medical and disability groups. Over half of MPs (58 per cent) surveyed said that such factors had a major influence on their own views.
Dr Gordon Macdonald, CEO of Care Not Killing, commented, "This poll blows apart the lie that the House of Commons is both settled and supportive of legalising assisted suicide. Quite the contrary, it shows that even among some previously supportive MPs there was a recognition that the Bill was fundamentally unsafe and deeply flawed.”
He continued, “These findings, along with other polling we have carried out, prove that the more people hear about assisted suicide and euthanasia, or the problems within this particular Bill, the less likely they are to support it.”
“Given the very real risk of coercion, lack of conscience opt outs and the difficulty many sick and dying people experience in accessing high quality health care, we urge MPs to turn their attention to fixing these problems. I hope we can all agree that access to palliative care and support should never depend on either your postcode or bank balance. We need more care not killing.”
