A Peer with a disability has said the legalisation of assisted suicide “puts a price on my head”, as the Bill continues to make its way through the House of Lords.
Speaking during the second day of Second Reading of the assisted suicide Bill in the House of Lords, Lord Shinkwin, who was born with osteogenesis imperfecta, called the Bill “the stuff of nightmares”, saying, “There are savings to be made should assisted dying be introduced. This Bill effectively puts a price on my head”.
Lord Shinkwin continued, saying that should the Bill “become law and precedents set elsewhere apply in the UK over time, I face the realistic possibility, as a severely disabled person, of being killed as a result of legislation passed by this House”.
Shinkwin also highlighted the spoken contribution of former Prime Minister, Theresa May, who now sits in the House of Lords, in which she referred to the Bill as “the ‘Licence to Kill Bill’”. He said that Baroness May “is right: it gives the state a licence to kill the wrong type of people. I am the wrong type”.