Keir Starmer is dead wrong about assisted suicide

Keir Starmer has promised to give MPs a free vote on legalising assisted suicide if Labour wins the next UK General Election.

He made the pledge earlier this week, in response to Esther Rantzen, the veteran broadcaster who is also a vocal advocate for assisted suicide. Starmer told her: ‘I’m personally in favour of changing the law. I think we need to make time. We will make the commitment.’

Starmer may have a terrible track record when it comes to keeping his promises, but there is reason to fear that the notorious flip-flopper might actually make good on this one. He has, after all, continuously supported legalising assisted suicide. As an MP in 2015, he voted in favour of it. And when he was director of public prosecutions, in 2010, he issued guidelines that strongly discouraged prosecutions against anyone who helped a terminally ill person end their life. Indeed, his position on assisted dying may be the only consistent one he has ever held.

It looks as if the UK public backs Starmer, too. Earlier this week, a poll found that the vast majority of voters support changing the law to allow assisted suicide or euthanasia. Those in favour would do well to look elsewhere around the world to see where introducing a ‘right to die’ has led.

Starmer has promised that any change in the UK law must be accompanied by ‘safeguards with teeth to protect the vulnerable’ from abuse. But herein lies the fundamental problem with legalising assisted dying. In almost every country where it has been legalised, the safeguards that were initially put in place have been trampled on. Like a cancer, the so-called right to die inevitably spreads.

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