Assisted Dying Bill - Open Letter to Georgia Gould, MP

Photo by Josh Appel on Unsplash

To Georgia Gould, MP, Parliamentary Secretary at the Cabinet Office

Dear Georgia

We are writing as parents of a son, 51, who lacks capacity and is unable to speak because of a profound learning disability and autism. Therefore, as his appointee, his father, Colin is writing on his behalf, and I am joining him.

Thanks to vigorous intervention by your predecessor Dame Karen Buck, our son lives a happy and active life in his own home, a council house in Queen's Park, in the North of the Borough of Westminster, with support provided by a care company, funded under the National Health Continuing Care scheme. His current wonderful staff have been with him for many years, some over 20 years, and love him very much, as he does them.

The Assisted Dying Bill, if passed, would remove the current safeguards he now has, enshrined in the Hippocratic oath, which could directly impact him and cut his life short.

This view would apply to many, many other people, either disabled or not.

The way forward is, surely, to enhance hospice care in this country and ensure dignity in death.

Please vote on behalf of people like him, against the Assisted Dying Bill.

Thank you,

All best wishes,

name and address withheld