Today, people who have outlived their terminal prognoses are gathering outside Parliament asking peers in the House of Lords to reject Kim Leadbeater’s bill to legalise assisted suicide.
The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill is receiving its second reading in the House of Lords, seeking to legalise assisting suicide for people who are expected to live six months or less.
The gathering sees people who have faced terminal illness sharing how they have lived beyond the expectations of doctors. They are sharing how these extra months and years have proved deeply worthwhile. They are calling on the House of Lords to stop the assisted suicide bill that would deprive other people of these precious months and years.
Cecil Harper, 64, is at the demonstration with his daughter and carer, Storm Cecile. He was given two years to live in 2019 when he was diagnosed with two types of cancer. Again in 2023, a doctor said he had “one year to live”. He says:
“When you’re told that you only have, say, a year to live; it does get to your head. But you have to try and put that to the back of your mind because the doctors are not God.”
The group also features close family members of people who have died but led meaningful, dignified lives beyond their terminal diagnosis.
Philip Wren is the father of Matthew, who died from terminal cancer aged 40. Matthew had written a published article in November 2024 to explain why, as a terminally ill cancer patient, he was opposed to assisted suicide. In his last week of life, Matthew asked his father to help him write again from his palliative care bed to emphasise that there was a better option than assisted suicide.
Philip says:
“A lesson I learned from Matthew’s final year is that so long as a person has a purpose, life can remain fulfilled even in the most difficult of circumstances. We value the last year spent with Matthew. There were some special times which meant that we are grateful that he didn’t take the opportunity (had it been available) to just end it all.”
Christian Concern, which has organised the gathering, is one of many groups firmly opposed to the bill. The display directly addresses the danger which such criteria as a six-month prognosis have on those who may have many more months, even years, of life ahead of them.
Andrea Williams, chief executive of Christian Concern, said:
“This bill will force the NHS to facilitate assisted suicide for anyone who has been given six months to live. As the stories on display will show, many patients outlive doctors expectations, sometimes by years. The fact is that doctors are not good at reliably predicting how long someone has left to live.
“These stories show people from all walks of life who have faced the prospect of death with courage and found great value in the last months and years of their lives.
“A terminal diagnosis is not the end of the story. But Kim Leadbeater’s bill would nudge many vulnerable people towards seeing suicide as a solution to their illness. Hundreds if not thousands of people each year would miss valuable time with loved ones – and in some cases the chance of recovery.
“The six-month safeguard in this bill is weaker still. Doctors who sign off on these applications are likely to be ideologically committed to assisted suicide. In practice, they will be more likely to sign off on a more pessimistic prognosis to uphold a patient’s so-called ‘autonomy’.
“This deadly bill is in no way compassionate and the House of Lords must reject it.”