Penny Batchelor, who has a genetic bone disorder, believes the proposed law fails to safeguard the vulnerable.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”credit-name” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” text_font=”Black Han Sans|||on|||||” text_text_color=”#000000″ header_4_font=”|||on|||||” header_4_text_align=”center” text_orientation=”center” custom_margin=”||0px||false|false” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content” sticky_enabled=”0″]
Words By Penny Batchelor<\/strong><\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/flatplan-plus-content.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2025\/05\/shutterstock_editorial_14956689g.psd_1024_Heightjpg.jpg” alt=”Diddy” title_text=”Assisted Dying Bill Protests, London, UK – 29 Nov 2024″ force_fullwidth=”on” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content” sticky_enabled=”0″][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content” sticky_enabled=”0″] On Friday 2 May, tucked between the local election results and a bank holiday weekend, the Government quietly released its equality impact assessment for the assisted dying bill, which reaches the report stage in Parliament this week.<\/p>\n Predictions about how the bill could save the NHS almost \u00a360 million sparked fear in disabled people. I\u2019m one of them: I was born with the rare physical disability osteogenesis imperfecta, a genetic bone disorder. I\u2019m worried that terminally ill and disabled people will be seen as a financial drain on society, and about the bill\u2019s lack of safeguards against coercion and financial or family pressure to seek an assisted death.<\/p>\n The Labour MP Kim Leadbeater\u2019s proposed Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill would allow adults who are terminally ill to request and be provided with assistance to end their own life. However, I\u2019m concerned it\u2019s fallible. For a start, it\u2019s hard to trust that the Government will protect the vulnerable, especially when we remember ill and elderly people having \u2018do not resuscitate\u2019 orders placed on their records without consent during the pandemic.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/flatplan-plus-content.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2025\/05\/snapins-ai_2653997802088739391.psd_1024_Heightjpg.jpg” alt=”Penny Batchelor” title_text=”snapins-ai_2653997802088739391.psd_1024_Heightjpg” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content” sticky_enabled=”0″][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content” sticky_enabled=”0″] In 2017, we heard surgeon and assisted dying campaigner Dr Henry Marsh say, \u2018Even if a few grannies get bullied into assisted dying, isn\u2019t that a price worth paying for all those who could die with dignity?\u2019 While the journalist Sherelle Jacobs wrote in The Telegraph that \u2018The taboo that nobody dares to articulate is that assisted dying will leave society financially better off.\u2019<\/p>\n Ailidh Musgrave, a campaigner and expert by experience for the NHS, shared her own safeguarding concerns with MPs last month. In 2019, doctors said her life was at risk because she was dangerously underweight from living with anorexia since she was 13. She refused rehydration and feeding support and it was only her mother encouraging her to eat that kept her alive.<\/p>\n Now 28 and in recovery, she told MPs, \u2018The assisted dying bill frightens me because had it been legal back then, I could and would have accessed it to end my life.\u2019 Now in recovery, she\u2019s living a life \u2018more amazing than I ever dreamed possible\u2019, something that couldn\u2019t have happened had assisted dying been an option for her.<\/p>\n During the committee stage a proposed bill amendment to prevent people with anorexia from accessing assisted dying was outvoted, along with other safeguards, including making it illegal to encourage someone to seek assisted dying. The group of 23 MPs making up the committee, all picked by Leadbeater, consisted of 14 in favour of the bill and nine against it.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”custom-quote” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” header_2_font=”Libre Bodoni|||on|||||” header_2_text_align=”center” header_2_text_color=”#333333″ header_2_font_size=”40px” header_2_line_height=”1.2em” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content” sticky_enabled=”0″] Supporters of the bill insist that it\u2019s for terminally ill people only, not disabled people, rejecting concerns about the so called ‘slippery slope’ effect, despite countries such as Canada, which legalised assisted dying in 2016, expanding it to include serious non- terminal chronic physical conditions in 2021 and mooting plans to widen the law to include mental illness. Former Paralympian Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson disputes this. \u2018We keep being told, \u201cIt isn\u2019t for you\u201d. But it\u2019s not true that the bill cannot be amended once it reaches the statute books.\u2019<\/p>\n Canada has one of the highest rates of euthanasia in the world and moves to make it more accessible have been met with concern. It\u2019s even been reported that applicants have given financial reasons for their desire to die. Actor, campaigner and author of the award-winning assisted suicide documentary Better Off Dead? Liz Carr reiterates that \u2018lives should never be measured on the basis of financial worth\u2019.<\/p>\n An alternative for the assisted dying question could be a royal commission that offers an independent legal and ethical review to inform policy decisions. For true end-of-life choice, we also need better palliative care. In its current rushed form, Grey- Thompson says the bill \u2018puts disabled and other vulnerable people at grave risk by providing financial incentives to an already overburdened and under-resourced NHS to offer assisted dying as a treatment option\u2019. Meanwhile, Musgrave continues to campaign for the bill in its current form to be voted down. \u2018Thinking about this bill breaks my heart,\u2019 she says.<\/p>\n Penny Batchelor\u2019s latest book, \u2018The WomanNext Door\u2019, is published 15 May<\/em><\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_divider color=”#111111″ divider_position=”center” divider_weight=”2px” module_class=”custom-divider” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” custom_margin=”0px||0px||false|false” custom_padding=”0px||0px||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”][\/et_pb_divider][et_pb_text module_class=”credit-texts” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” text_font=”|||on|||||” text_orientation=”center” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”] Photo: <\/b>Getty<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Penny Batchelor, who has a genetic bone disorder, believes the proposed law fails to safeguard the vulnerable.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":9443,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9439","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-feature","category-news"],"acf":[],"modified_by":"guestgrazia","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9439","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9439"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9439\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9451,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9439\/revisions\/9451"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9443"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9439"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9439"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9439"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}‘Thinking about this bill breaks my heart.’<\/h2>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content” sticky_enabled=”0″]