Ruth Davidson
First appeared in Prospect Magazine 10th July 2024
At their most basic level, election campaigns are a series of promises about the sort of country we could live in, if we vote a certain way, and scare stories about the bad that might happen by voting another. Much of the basis of the various parties’ promises—or threats, depending on how you view them—is about how we live; the taxes we pay, the houses built for us, the services provided for our needs.
I want more than that. In the next parliament, I’d like to hear politicians talk about what kind of country we want to die in. Yes, the opportunity of a good life is important—of course it is. But it’s time that we cared enough to discuss our citizens being allowed a good death, too.
When I joined the House of Lords in 2021, I made my maiden speech on the issue of assisted dying, admitting that in my 10 years in Holyrood, voting against a private members’ bill to introduce it in Scotland was my biggest political regret. That bill, introduced over a decade ago, was hugely flawed—its drafting was mediocre and the safeguards not strong enough. It was easy to vote against it without engaging properly with its subject.
We are a lot further forward now and there are many more examples to study. From Luxembourg to New Zealand, there are 400m people in the world living in countries and territories that have introduced some form of assisted dying, giving people agency over their final hours and dignity in death. No parliament or sub-parliamentary legislature that has granted permission for assisted dying has chosen to rescind it.
It is estimated that up to 650 terminally ill people in the UK take their own lives each year. An average of one British citizen every week travels to Switzerland for help to end their life. UK membership of Dignitas, the Swiss assisted dying association, has risen to record highs and Britons now constitute the second-largest nationality, behind Germans.
As more people across the UK care for, support or watch a member of their family or friendship group face chronic or terminal illness, the public mood in favour of new measures shifts. In February, the polling company Opinium asked 10,000 people their views on assisted dying. As many as 75 per cent of respondents were in favour, with only 14 per cent opposed. At this election, it is worth noting the majority support for changing the law in every single constituency in Britain.
Professional resistance is also changing. Last year the Royal College of Surgeons ended its opposition to assisted dying measures. In so doing, it followed the lead of the Royal College of Physicians, the Royal College of Nursing and the British Medical Association.
Issues of conscience are generally not whipped in parliament. That means the political parties allow MPs to vote with their own beliefs. But laws can only be voted on and enacted if parliamentary time is given so that the issues can be discussed. The Liberal Democrats were explicit in their manifesto that they would devote parliamentary time to “fully debate and vote on legislation on assisted dying for terminally ill, mentally competent adults with strict safeguards”, while the Conservatives linked a commitment to a free vote with ensuring continued support for hospices.
Assisted dying didn’t make it into the Labour manifesto, but Keir Starmer has said that he is “personally in favour of changing the law”, and that he will make time available for it as prime minister.
Nobody likes to think about their own death and particularly not of the idea that we might die in pain or without agency. The time to start those difficult conversations is here—and the country is already ahead of the politicians. Yes, let’s make the UK a better place to live, but let’s also make it a country that offers people a good death, too.
Ruth Davidson is the former leader of the Scottish Conservative Party
