Assisted Dying Bill: West Country people have their say on whether landmark bill should pass
Supporters of the bill have said it would give people the choice to end their lives while others fear it could lead to exploitation, as ITV News' Ben McGrail reports
People across the West Country have spoken in support and opposition of the Assisted Dying Bill ahead of it being debated in Parliament.
The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, brought forward by Labour backbencher Kim Leadbeater, would allow adults with fewer than six months left to live the choice of taking their own lives.
MPs will cast their votes on Friday 29 November, in the first debate and vote of its kind in the House of Commons in almost a decade.
Ahead of the vote, ITV News West Country has heard from politicians, religious leaders, doctors and those with a terminal condition, who might want to end their life.
Anne Jappie, from Cheltenham, lives with several neurodegenerative conditions and is among those supporting the bill.
She explained: "If I get to the point where I can't cope anymore... I can't travel to Switzerland and the folk who can often will go earlier that they would want to because they're still physically able to do so and they have the financial resources to do so.
"And I've seen family and friends endure the most appalling torture. That's what it is. And when people say, 'Oh, but we haven't debated properly', ugh, this has been going on for over 10 years.
"It's my pain and I'm sick to death of people saying, 'Oh but you're vulnerable and you haven't thought about it'.
"The worst of it is, I'm not sick to death enough so that even if it does pass, there'll still be people saying, 'Oh but you're not sick enough'.
"It's an appalling situation and if the MPs don't vote, if you sit on the fence, you're endorsing and agreeing with the existing situation which is utterly, utterly inhumane.
"Because when my mother was in the nursing home, I had to keep arguing with the doctors to please increase her pain medication and her happy pills, because she was clearly in pain and she was crying. It was just so humiliating and awful for her. She had also a long-expressed wish not to be in that situation. Dear me.
"And the doctor said, 'Oh but it might extend her life'. She was in her early 90s! And assisted dying is not about anything other than a good death. It's about shortening death and giving people control and dignity
'Who is going to do this work?' - Bishop of Bath and Wells
The Bishop of Bath and Wells, Rt Revd Michael Beasley, opposes the bill, on the grounds that it could pressurise vulnerable people into taking their own lives and put extra stress on the NHS.
He said: "My principle concern is that I am just not assured that the safeguards in the legislation will act to prevent some of most vulnerable people in our country feeling led to believe that they should take their own lives.
"Either because they feel they will be a burden to their families or to the NHS or that they might be convinced to take their own lives by those who might seek to coerce them into doing that.
"I'm also really concerned that no impact assessment of the legislation has been undertaken. And that I think presents fearsome practical problems about how, if it were passed, it would ever be possible to implement it safely and well.
"For example, it says that a person considering assisted suicide must see two doctors, one week apart.
"Given that studies show that only 35% of medics would be willing to have anything to do with this measure, and that figure drops dramatically more for the people who would be undertaking the assessment - oncologists, geriatricians, or palliative care specialists - who is going to do this work?
"As a bishop, I'm privileged to go into hospices and see the extraordinary work that they do. Of dignity, respect, wonderful care, pain relief - that should be open to everybody. But it's not happening at the moment because the system is so underfunded.
"It's that that we need to get right, and not only do we need to get that right, we need to get the research right as well, to make sure nobody dies in pain. The research is underfunded too right now and that needs to be solved as well.
'You're just existing and nobody should have to live like that'
Kim Davis' father Ted died from motor neurone disease 11 years ago. She doesn't want any other families to see their loved ones suffer like she did.
"From the onset of not being able to speak and swallow, it came out he had MND and he declined quite rapidly. He was always a fit, fun-loving guy and it just took everything from him. It was just watching him suffer that no-one should have to go through that.
"My Dad every day, as he was declining, where he could use his limbs he used to point his arm to the sky, and every time the nurse came in, the words 'can you inject me to let me go.' You're not living, you're just existing and nobody should have to live like that."
Ms Davis said she would be "elated" if MPs vote in favour of the Assisted Dying Bill tomorrow.
"It would mean that nobody else needs to live through what we've lived through and many others, and people who are actually dying from MND right now, I think it would be a release for the person dying and their family."
'Hard cases make for bad laws' - Bishop of Exeter
The Bishop of Exeter Rt. Revd Dr Mike Harrison agreed with his counterpart in Bath and Wells.
He said: "Standing in the Christian tradition, I am concerned about the sanctity of life. So any bill that suggests the taking of life is of grave concern to me, and indeed the way the bill is constructed gives me grave concern. So I'm against the bill as it stands.
"My heart goes out to those people who are in those circumstances and pastorally I've come across them in my time as a parish priest, but I think hard cases make for bad laws and unintended consequences of this law include the vulnerable, the aged, the dependent, those with low incomes feeling pressured to be involved in their own assisted dying.
"As a Christian minister, I'm particularly concerned for the vulnerable and they way they could be so pressurised."
ITV News assisted dying vote tracker: How do MPs intend to vote on the bill?
The vote on the private members' bill is what is called a free vote - when MPs get to vote however they choose and are not told by a Party whip whether to support or oppose it.
While several MPs in the West Country are still trying to decide which way they'll vote, others have already decided including South Devon's MP Caroline Voaden, and Stroud's Dr Simon Opher, who have both expressed their support for a change in the law providing the right protections are in place.
Meanwhile, South West Devon's MP Rebecca Smith, and East Wiltshire's MP Danny Kruger have said they will be voting against the Bill as they are worried there aren't enough safeguards in place to protect vulnerable people.
Caroline Voaden MP, Lib Dem, South Devon
Caroline Voaden, Liberal Democrat MP for South Devon, said she supports the Assisted Dying Bill as she believes people who are terminally ill should have the choice to end their suffering.
"I think it's really important that people have the choice in how to die, and while palliative care is extremely important, we know that it's not always sufficient.
"Some people have horrible symptoms and are facing a horrible death, and I wanted to be able to give people the choice to choose when and how they die. People who are already going to die.
"People have said that the bill won't have enough parliamentary time because it's a private members bill, but actually that's not true because if we vote it through on Friday, it then goes to a committee stage, and it then goes to third reading, so there's plenty of time to explore the issues and call in experts, and look at all those experts that have been mooted."
Rebecca Smith MP, Con, South West Devon
Meanwhile, Rebecca Smith, Conservative MP for South West Devon, said she doesn't believe there are sufficient safeguards in place to protect people.
"I'm just deeply concerned for vulnerable groups like the elderly and the disabled, and although they claim there are safeguards in this bill, from what I've seen and from the evidence from other countries, I don't feel comfortable.
"How we care for our most vulnerable people is how we're judged as a nation, and for me, I have to be their voice, because if we don't speak up on their behalf they're not able to do this themselves.
"Every single country in the world that has done this, what they started with is not where they're at at the moment. And the cases that I've seen, they're horrifying.
"When you have disabled people saying they're terrified, I am nowhere near comfortable about voting for something that is terrifying some of the most vulnerable in our society."
Danny Kruger MP, Con, East Wiltshire
Danny Kruger, Conservative MP for East Wiltshire, has been a vocal opponent of changing the law on assisted dying for some time, and is a long supporter of palliative and hospice care.
"Everybody thinks we should be assisted to die in as little pain as possible with maximum choice. That's why people say they support assisted dying.
"But what this is giving doctors the power to prescribe lethal drugs to patients without sufficient safeguards to protect the vulnerable.
"And when you talk people through the actual bill, and that's what we're going to be debating tomorrow, people overwhelmingly recognise that there are problems with it.
"I don't think we should be having this debate exactly, but if this leads to improvements in palliative care, which is what I'm arguing for, and what everybody agrees need to happen, but we should not go down this road, then I think it would have served a helpful purpose."
The last time MPs voted on the issue in 2015, the bill was defeated by 330 votes to 118, but the composition of the Commons has significantly changed since then following this year's general election with more Labour MPs sitting.
Assisted dying is currently banned in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, with a maximum prison sentence of 14 years.