Gordon Brown says newborn daughter's death is why he opposes assisted dying
Former prime minister Gordon Brown said he is against legalising assisted dying, saying the death of his 11-day-old daughter in 2002 convinced him of the “value and imperative of good end-of-life care”.
The former Labour MP said the assisted dying debate was moving too fast and called for a commission on end-of-life care to be set up instead.
It comes ahead of the Commons debate on the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill on Friday, November 29.
Writing in the Guardian, Brown shared a glimpse of the time he and his wife Sarah spent with their baby, Jennifer, who died days after she was born.
“We could only sit with her, hold her tiny hand and be there for her as life ebbed away. She died in our arms," he said.
“But those days we spent with her remain among the most precious days of my and Sarah’s lives.”
Brown said a commission should work to create a “fully-funded, 10-year strategy for improved and comprehensive palliative care” instead of seeking to change the law.
“When only a small fraction of the population are expected to choose assisted dying, would it not be better to focus all our energies on improving all-round hospice care to reach everyone in need of end of life support?” he said.
Brown added: “Medical advances that can transform end-of-life care and the horror of people dying alone, as with Covid, have taught us a great deal.
“This generation have it in our power to ensure no-one should have to face death alone, uncared for, or subject to avoidable pain.”
MPs will vote on the legislation, which was put forward by Labour MP Kim Leadbeater, next week.
Under the plans, terminally ill people with less than six months left to live would need two doctors and a high court judge to sign off their assisted death.
It would only apply to adults in England and Wales who have full mental capacity, and they would need to declare twice in writing that they wanted to be helped to die.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper is the latest senior minister to disclose her position on assisted dying, signalling to broadcasters on Friday that she may support the bill.
“I continue to support the principle of needing change but also to ensure that we’ve got the proper safeguards and systems in place,” she told ITV’s Good Morning Britain.
Asked if that meant a “yes” when the Bill comes to the Commons, she replied: “I think I last voted on this about 20 years ago and so I have supported the principle in the past and continue to believe that change is needed but we do need to have that debate on the detail and I’ll continue to follow that debate next Friday."
The minister for palliative care Stephen Kinnock told ITV News last week that he will vote for the assisted dying bill, in contrast to his boss Health Secretary Wes Streeting.
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Kinnock, who sits beneath Streeting at the Department for Health and Social Care, said he did not believe there was a conflict between assisted dying and hospice care.
Streeting has expressed a different view, saying that he worries about the impact on hospice care if assisted dying is legalised.
Last week he ordered his department to calculate the costs of the bill, warning that it could divert money from other NHS services.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Keir Starmer has opted not to say whether he will support the bill.
The landmark vote on legalising assisted dying is due to be held on Friday 29 November.
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