The slippery slope of assisted dying

Critics of the Assisted Dying Bill have been warning for a while that it would lead to a ‘slippery slope’. Their fears are looking increasingly legitimate.

The bill, introduced by Labour MP Kim Leadbeater, had its first reading in the Commons yesterday. In the last few days, some of those with conditions that might not qualify under the proposed legislation are voicing their concern about not being included. Is there already a danger that the scope of the bill will be expanded to include them?

Sir Nicholas Mostyn, a retired judge, set up a feisty group of Parkinson’s sufferers who produce a podcast called, rather brilliantly, Movers and Shakers. Mostyn is up in arms because, he says, those with Parkinson’s might ‘be left on the beach’:

‘Parkies [the podcast’s term for people with Parkinson’s] will never get a terminal diagnosis, so this bill is no f***ing use to us at all.