Catholic Medical Quarterly Volume 75(1) February 2025

Poverty FORCES CITIZENS TO APPLY FOR assisted dying.

Our Duty of Care told us in November that poverty—allied with restrictions in access to medical treatment and vital social support—is forcing Canada’s most deprived citizens to opt for Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD).

The MAiD Death Review Committee (MDRC) Report 2024, delivered yet another stark warning – should any more be needed - of what could lie in store for Britain should the Leadbeater Bill become law.

There is real risk, however, that should the Bill pass, we would eventually see the law EXPAND to include people who are NOT Dying.

That’s what happened in Canada in 2021- MAiD expanded to include people with incurable but non-terminal illnesses.

The change coincided with ongoing increases in MAiD deaths which rose by another 30% (an additional 3,149 people) in the following 12 months.

Ms Leadbeater denies there are parallels between the MAiD law in Canada and her own Bill and dismisses claims that should her Bill become law it would lead to the ‘broadening’ of assisted suicide law over time.

Yet, the slippery slope in Canada began with legislation which – like the Leadbeater Bill ­ ONLY applied to adults whose deaths were ‘reasonably foreseeable’ – i.e. terminally ill.

Besides this, legal experts warn that should the Leadbeater Bill become law the courts could step in and hugely expand assisted suicide law, as happened in Canada.

Alex Ruck Keene KC believes that:

“[It is] quite possible to see how the courts would be willing to entertain discrimination-based challenges to the limits in the .... [Leadbeater Bill-type] legislation because it will not be a question of whether assisted dying [sic] should be legal, which the courts have said is for Parliament, but rather to whom it should be available.”