Assisted suicide bill poses mortal threat to UK citizens, young and old

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Dear
SPUC supporter,
A new assisted suicide bill, the first of its kind since 2015, is set to be voted on by Westminster MPs on 29 November.

If passed, this dangerous and irresponsible bill will effectively sign the death warrants of countless vulnerable patients, and it could potentially lead to the state-sanctioned deaths of the elderly, people with mental illness, and even the poor and veterans with PTSD.
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In response to this profound threat, SPUC has moved to a higher level of readiness, and we are mobilising all our forces to combat this horrific bill.

But to prevent this looming catastrophe, WE NEED YOUR HELP.
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WE MUST ACT NOW BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE
Yesterday, Labour MP Kim Leadbeater introduced her assisted suicide bill for the “terminally ill” to Parliament.

Leadbeater’s bill will allow doctors to assist in the suicides of patients under their care. This is not medicine but state-sanctioned death for “problem” people who are viewed as a drain on health services.

A similar bill proposed by Lord Falconer will not proceed, but this will simply allow the assisted suicide lobby to concentrate its efforts on the Leadbeater Bill, which will be voted on very soon (29 November).

We cannot afford to be complacent. Time is running out. That is why WE MUST ACT NOW against this imminent threat.

An imminent threat
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The mortal threats that assisted suicide poses are as numerous as they are iniquitous. Here are but a few:
* The creation of an expectation/pressure to choose suicide – which is no “choice” at all – making already vulnerable people feel they are a burden on family and society
* The undermining of the central tenet of medicine, which is to do no harm and not kill
* The affirmation of suicide as a solution to life’s challenges, undermining suicide prevention
* The likely denial of investment in true end-of-life care (palliative care), which only receives 37% of its funding from the government
* The creation of a “slippery slope” that will likely see assisted suicide expanded to kill non-terminally ill citizens as we have seen in Canada, where even war veterans suffering from PTSD have been recommended assisted suicide

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These are not simply fears but proven ramifications of assisted suicide bills inflicted on nations like Canada and the Netherlands. Every week new horror stories emerge that testify to the horrifying truth about these laws.

Here’s another FACT: Assisted suicide killed over 15,000 Canadians in 2023, and over 50,000 people have died since it came into deadly effect in 2016. The annual death toll rises every year.

Crisis in palliative care is a disaster waiting to happen

While Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer supports assisted suicide, his Health Secretary, Wes Streeting, warns that such a law might lead patients to “take their own life thinking they were a burden on others”.

The Health Secretary continued: “I am not sure as a country we have the right end-of-life care available to enable a real choice on assisted dying…

“How do you make sure that people aren’t coerced into exercising their right to die, if it were available? I don’t just mean direct coercion and inducement.”

The underinvestment in and undervaluing of end-of-life care in the UK has already led an elderly British couple to sign up for the infamous Dr Death’s suicide pod in Switzerland because they no longer trust the NHS to take care of them in their infirmity.

What will happen in the UK if assisted suicide is legalised?

Dr Death has already advocated the use of his horrific suicide chamber in the UK. In September it reportedly killed its first customer in Switzerland.
Attribution: Ratel, CC BY-SA 4.0 /creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
Meanwhile, a Marie Curie study found that half (49%) of bereaved UK respondents were unhappy with the end-of-life care that a family member received, and one in eight made an official complaint, pointing to a “crisis” in palliative care.

The situation is similar in Canada, where assisted suicide is legal. Recently, a cancer patient stuck in a chemotherapy “backlog” for ten weeks gave up and “chose” assisted suicide instead, which was granted to him within days – this is no choice at all.

SPUC’s Parliamentary Team is working tirelessly to stop this horror being inflicted on UK citizens.
“Assisted suicide is the complete antithesis of good health care. Palliative medicine specialists and others who provide good end-of-life care recognise that a person is dying, meet the person there and accompany them on that journey…

“Hastening death by assisted suicide or euthanasia sends completely the opposite message. We would be saying: ‘We cannot cope with your suffering, so we are going to hasten your death’.”

Dr Dominic Whitehouse, Palliative Care Consultant
SPUC Lobbies Westminster MPs
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SPUC is mobilising its extensive supporter base across the country and asking them to contact their MPs through emails and letters to lobby them personally with all haste.

Over half of MPs are new to Parliament and have not voted on this issue before. Many have not even thought about it, and they will be getting barrages of messages from the other side – we must make sure our voice is heard.

We are also activating other assets to combat the assisted suicide threat. SPUC has and is providing briefings, and we are also lobbying hard at Westminster.

We also have a series of talks by the esteemed palliative care doctor, Dominic Whitehouse, who is touring the country.

SPUC has also compiled stories of ordinary people opposed to assisted suicide that you can
access here for free ([link removed](web).pdf) online. This vital material is of just as much use to politicians as it is to the public they’re supposed to serve and protect.

Strengthening SPUC’s Parliamentary Outreach

I need your help to invest in new political team members who can impress upon politicians at Westminster just what’s at stake before it’s too late.

Two new team members have been employed (at a combined annual cost of £60k).

Their role is to lobby MPs and Peers, send them briefings and organise events in Parliament:
* As I write, MPs are being approached and initial meetings are being sought
* In addition, 5 parliamentary events have been scheduled for next year

With over 300 new MPs at Westminster, there is a great opportunity to inform, alert and influence politicians.

Will you give £10 or £20 or £50 or £100 or £250 or £500 or £1,000 or £5,000 or more today to help ramp up SPUC’s crucial outreach to politicians at Westminster in defence of unborn babies and vulnerable people who are facing the threat of a medically assisted suicide?

Thank you for your vital support.

Yours in Defence of Life
John Deighan
Chief Executive
PS: With multiple bids to introduce assisted suicide in Britain pending we must act NOW or it will be too late:
* Vulnerable people will be pressured to end their own lives
* The scale of the killing will quickly accelerate
* People who are NOT dying will be coerced into opting for an assisted suicide death.

Sick people in Canada – where assisted suicide/euthanasia deaths have rocketed from 1,018 to 13,241 in the first five years – are being asked to seek MAiD (Medical Assistance in Dying) rather than receiving medical treatment.

Kathrin Mentler, a 37-year-old Canadian woman with a history of self-harm, was offered MAiD instead of seeing a psychiatrist after being told there were no hospital beds.

Ms Mentler went to the hospital for help, filled out forms, and shared her mental health struggles with a clinician. She wanted to stay overnight to be treated by a psychologist but was instead asked if she had considered MAiD.

The people of the UK deserve a future better than this.

Britain must NOT become another Canada.

The clock is ticking.

I strongly urge you to respond to this crucial appeal TODAY.
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