Rutland dad with motor neurone disease encouraged by Parliament debate on assisted dying
A motor neurone disease sufferer has welcomed progress in Parliament in the campaign to legalise assisted dying.
Phil Newby has lived with MND for 10 years and has championed the cause of an individual’s right to euthanasia.
In 2020, Phil’s appeal to get the law on assisted dying changed was turned down by the High Court, but he has continued to promote the discussion, including a ‘Kill Phil’ podcast.
Hope was rekindled last week when Lord Falconer’s Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults Bill was introduced to the House of Lords.
The Bill, which proposes that terminally ill, mentally competent adults should be able to choose a safeguarded option of assisted dying, will have its Second Reading in the Lords on November 15.
Phil, who lives with his wife and two children near Rutland Water, believes the timing is significant.
“The important thing is that it puts down a marker within parliament to say there is an appetite for this and right at the start of the term,” he said.
“The thing that’s been missing for many years now is a political debate and any government giving this parliamentary time to be properly debated, so that will make a huge difference.”
Any proposed law would have safeguards, as used in Australia, New Zealand and parts of the United States, such as strict eligibility criteria and an assessment by two independent doctors.
A continuing concern for opponents is that any change in the law could be open to abuse.
“I think it’s beginning to become more self-evident that in other countries, in particular New Zealand and Australia, people have been able to bring in new laws and protect minority groups,” said Phil.
Public support for assisted dying has swelled in recent years, persuading the major political parties to make manifesto commitments ahead of the General Election.
Since election, prime minister Keir Starmer has also confirmed his commitment to making time for a debate and a free vote, while the Scottish Parliament is currently debating a change in the law.
“In recent years the argument to change the law has largely been won and polling shows a very large majority of the public are in favour of changing the law,” said Phil.
“The professional bodies controlling medicines are increasingly dropping opposition to it, so the tides have turned.”
If the bill passes its Second Reading, it will go to committee stage and then be scrutinised.
For it ultimately to become law it would have to be voted through by the House of Commons.
And Phil believes opposition remains ‘potent’.
“You have a very large lobby who have strongly-held religious beliefs in the sanctity of life and the law should not be changed for any reason,” he said.
“And then there are various lobbies that are powerful and well funded and they will do anything they can to stop this law.”
The Dignity in Dying group said up to 650 terminally ill Britons take their lives each year, and Phil believes a law change would give them a choice and an ‘insurance policy’.
“I’m losing capacity and strength all the time,” he said. “I’m more paralysed and struggle with all sorts of medical issues.
He added: “Whether your MND is going very fast, or in my case a bit slower, there will come a point where a doctor will tell me I’m in my last months.
“At that point I might decide I would rather call it quits than have to go through it.
“It will touch everyone’s life at some point - either directly or through a family member or friend.”
Phil recently raised £6,500, split between the MND Association and Helping Our Ukrainian Friends, through a 24-hour ‘jukeboxathon’.
It involved an entire day of listening to non-stop tracks requested by donors - some great, some not so.
“It was a bizarre experience, but it was loads of fun and I feel the better for it,” he said.
“It wasn’t funny when friends put on things like Agadoo in the early hours.
“Someone put on a Pink Floyd track that was 28 minutes long which was bizarre while on painkillers in the pitch dark.”
