Welsh politician, television presenter, and former wheelchair racer, Tanni (Baroness) Grey-Thompson is right in warning about “mission creep” towards euthanasia in the new assisted dying Bill and warns that “for many disabled people it’s not difficult to see the writing on the wall….To ignore this is to court danger.”

Jun 2, 2021 | Featured

Dying mission creep

SIR – Baroness Meacher’s Bill on assisted dying doesn’t explicitly target disabled people. But for many disabled people it’s not difficult to see the writing on the wall.

I was struck by a statement a few years ago by a group calling itself the Commission on Assisted Dying, which was made up largely of supporters of a change in the law.

In its report this group expressed the view that lethal drugs should not be offered to disabled people “at this point in time”. I found those five words chilling. They told me that I would not be a candidate for legalised assisted suicide at first, but should consider myself in the waiting room.

Such “mission creep” is inevitable when a law resting on a natural frontier, and applying equally to everyone, irrespective of their state of physical health or physical ability, is replaced by a law with an arbitrary boundary like terminal illness. Such laws contain within themselves the seeds of their own expansion. To ignore this is to court danger.

Baroness Grey-Thompson (Crossbench)
London SW1

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