‘Hardest decision of my career’: MPs wrestle with assisted dying choice

On Friday, MPs will make one of the most profound decisions of their political careers: how to vote on the assisted dying bill.

If it became law, the bill would give some terminally ill people in England and Wales the right to die at a time of their choosing.

Hundreds of MPs have spent the last few weeks sifting through the evidence, emotions and ethical dilemmas of the bill.

As they grapple with their decision, four MPs – Dan Tomlinson, Jess Asato, Rebecca Paul and Catherine Fookes – speak to the BBC about how they are making up their minds.

Tomlinson, the new Labour MP for Chipping Barnet in London, says he “definitely feels the responsibility” on his shoulders “to have thought this through” as Friday draws closer.

The issue has split Parliament, and the outcome of the vote is unknown, as the majority of MPs have not revealed how they will vote.

MPs have been given a free vote, meaning they can follow their conscience rather than party orders.

But it also leaves them to bear the responsibility – and the consequences – of their choice alone.

MPs normally gauge the mood of their constituents via the emails that flood into their offices, discussions and regular meetings.

But the assisted dying bill feels different, inspiring greater reflection and a deeper dive into personal experiences.

In the week leading up to the debate, Tomlinson has attended two town hall gatherings: one with constituents in favour and one with those against.

Hundreds braved a wintry London evening at the Finchley Reform Synagogue to hear speakers, including a palliative care doctor and Tory peer Lord Finkelstein, argue the case for assisted dying.

The crowd was calm and receptive but the air chilled momentarily when Tomlinson asked if the law might push more people to end their lives to avoid burdening families or the NHS.

The people gathered in the synagogue were eager for religious, legal and data-driven arguments in favour of assisted dying, and many voiced fears about loved ones in agony who would be ineligible under the terms of the proposed law.

Outside the meeting, one organiser Andrew Jacobs, 70, said he would “be very disappointed” if Tomlinson did not vote in favour of the bill on Friday.

In a matter-of-fact tone, Mr Jacobs said he backed assisted dying after seeing his mother’s struggle during her final days.

“She told me, ‘my body is a burden to me. If I were a pet, you’d put me down’,” he recalled.

“Seeing a loved one in distress, it’s really hard.”

Reflecting on the discussion, Tomlinson says he recognises the strength of “emotion and feeling in this debate – and that’s right and proper”.

“But I didn’t come into politics to shy away from difficult and challenging questions.”

Tomlinson’s fellow Labour MP, Jess Asato, has also spent the last two weeks holding regular meetings with constituents.

A debate held in a cavernous theatre in her Lowestoft constituency saw locals clash over both the principle and scope of the bill.

A terminally ill man who had been left “severely disabled” argued he deserved the right to access assisted drying.

The silent hall erupted into applause as he told the crowd: “I want to decide when I want to go, I want to go peacefully.”

After the meeting, Asato tells the BBC that MPs “feel the pressure” of the bill, and that she feels the “responsibility to vote with my conscience, for my constituents and the country”.

She says she is approaching the debate from a “policy perspective”.

To do this, she is trying to “understand what has happened in other countries such as Canada and the Netherlands” which have legalised assisted dying.

A key concern is whether the safeguards in the bill are robust enough to prevent people from being pressured or coerced into ending their lives.

Before entering parliament, Asato worked as a domestic abuse campaigner and learned “many people never spot coercive controlling behaviour – often not even the victims themselves”.

The importance of the vote is not lost on Rebecca Paul, who became Conservative MP for Reigate in July.

“I think anyone who is not daunted would be slightly worrying because they’re probably not realising the full gravity of it,” she says.

As well as public meetings, MPs have been consulting widely in private.

Tomlinson says he has been meeting healthcare workers and GPs who may end up being responsible for enacting new assisted dying legislation.

Paul turned to her friend Dr David Montgomery, a former Tory parliamentary candidate and medical researcher.

Huddled against the cold in a park near Paul’s Reigate constituency, Dr Montgomery argues it is difficult to accurately predict if someone has six months left to live: a key strand of the bill.

“You can tell when people are very close to death.

“But the prediction of six months as an arbitrary figure which is going to be open to huge interpretation and therefore I suspect quite a lot of legal challenge.”

Despite his concerns, Dr Montgomery says the trend of Britons going to Switzerland to die proves the UK must debate assisted dying.

“I’m not sure this is the way to have it,” he says.

Paul says she votes by trying “to take some of the emotion out” of debates and bases her decision on “facts and evidence”.

Her vote hinges not only on the principle but “how this would work in practice”.

It was watching her father suffer through a painful terminal illness that led the Labour MP for Monmouthshire, Catherine Fookes, to support the bill.

“The last few days were incredibly difficult, he was in a lot of pain and it was really, really, really hard to see someone you really love going through that,” she says.

“He struggled to breathe and so seeing him like that made me realise that we needed a change of the law.”

Fookes admits it wasn’t an easy decision, but says her dad’s struggle informed her choice.

This legislation – a private member’s bill – was introduced by Labour MP Kim Leadbeater, who said she had no doubt it was the right thing to do.

She said her plan was focused on “shortening death rather than ending life,” and ensuring “the strictest safeguards anywhere in the world”.

Rebecca Paul has now decided she is voting against the bill, telling the BBC the healthcare system is too stretched to ensure protection for vulnerable people.

Asato, too, has decided to vote against, saying the bill lacks sufficient safeguards against coercion and she cannot support it.

Asato understands her choice will disappoint parts of her community.

“I guess that is the beauty of a representative democracy – that you vote for your MP and then you put your trust and faith in that person to be able to weigh up all the evidence for a conscience vote,” she says.

Tomlinson, however, remains undecided, and will be using the act of writing his speech as the final step in what he calls “the hardest decision of his political career”.

But he says the free vote is “good for our politics” – allowing MPs to engage across party lines and creating space to think independently.