The case against assisted dying
Kim Leadbeater's bill may have run out of time in the House of Lords, but could well be resurrected, so Claire Fox looks forward to next week's online Bookshop Barnie with Kathleen Stock on the issue.
Below is an invitation to attend an invitation for you all to attend an important discussion with Kathleen Stock to discuss her new book Do Not Go Gentle: The Case Against Assisted Death. This will take place on Zoom on Monday evening – 20 April – from 7pm.
Thinking through the issue of assisted dying at a deeper and more philosophical level than sound-bites is so important. It’s a morally charged, often emotional topic and can be polarising. But it’s also cuts to foundational values like autonomy, attitudes to death, how society views its most vulnerable citizens, and how the state should relate to its citizen’s end-of-life needs.
This Battle of Ideas panel gives a taster of what is at stake.
This is an issue close to my heart as from many months now I have been entangled in debating the Terminally Ill (End of Life) Bill in the House of Lords. Indeed, next Friday will be the last scheduled debate on the Bill in the Lords. The legislation will not have been completed before prorogation the following week (we are due to ‘break up’ on 30 April or the start of May), so the Bill will fall – for now, at least.
For those who support assisted dying – many for understandable reasons because they have watched loved ones suffer at the end of life or because they themselves want the right to choose when they die having received a terminal diagnosis – this will be a disappointment. After all they were assured that having passed through the House of Commons, the House of Lords scrutiny of the Bill would be a formality. However, once we all read the proposed law change, many of us felt there were just too many dangers in a poorly drafted Bill to allow it to be nodded through without proper and detailed scrutiny, which is – after all – the whole point of a second chamber.
This led to a scurrilous campaign to discredit those who tabled the most amendments. There have been unjust accusations of filibustering, and unpleasant media briefing against a range of peers, not least two heroines of this story: Baroness Ilora Findley of Llandaff and Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson. Together with a cross-party and cross-bench group of peers, they have tirelessly raised profound, well-evidenced, thought-provoking amendments.
I made a modest contribution – have spoken every week, read around all the issues and then tried to raise genuine issues and areas of concern. All of this was done in good faith and as a few of my speeches show below, were not slick, PR-driven, cynical attempts at stopping the Bill. Rather, we were tentatively pushing the sponsors of the Bill, led by Lord (Charlie) Falconer, to explain where there were safeguarding gaps or asking for clarification about exactly how a state-run / NHS assisted-death service would operate in practice, how it would be paid for, and what other provisions – such as palliative care or hospices – could be sacrificed to allow the government to cover the costs of this new provision.
So yes, I am glad to see the back of this particular Bill for now. And as a private members’ bill, it has been given far more time than any equivalent. We know that Keir Starmer promised a new law to Esther Rantzen. But law-making and legislative priorities should not be determined by keeping promises to the prime minister’s celebrity friends. If the government really believes we need this Bill, they should have the courage to table it themselves and put it in their manifesto, etc.
Claire Fox speeches on assisted dying
Question on assisted dying - 19 September 2025
Question on eligibility for assisted dying - 20 March 2026
Question on doctors raising assisted suicide - 13 March 2026
Question on assisted suicide/dying commissioner - 27 February 2026
Invitation to next week’s Bookshop Barnie
You are cordially invited to the next free Bookshop Barnie with Kathleen Stock to discuss her new book Do Not Go Gentle: The Case Against Assisted Death.
The discussion will be on ZOOM on Monday 20 April, from 7pm – 8:30pm UK-time. (Please pass this on to interested friends and colleagues.)
Please register here on EVENTBRITE
INTRODUCTION
Is the right to die a meaningful right? Lord Glasman has said that this is merely a ‘fetish of choice’, but is it compassionate to keep people alive against their will? What powers might this give the state – and what freedom might it give an individual?
This is an important and timely debate. While the Guardian says Stock’s book is ‘admirably clear and cogent’, David Aaronovitch in the FT is less complimentary, saying that she ‘knows what you really need better than you do’. The New Statesman says that it is ‘simplistic’, but the Telegraph says that it’s ‘intellectually powerful’. This is clearly a polarised discussion.
SPEAKER
Professor Kathleen Stock is a columnist at UnHerd and a co-director of The Lesbian Project. Until 2021, she was a professor of Philosophy at Sussex University and was awarded an OBE for services to higher education in 2020.
ABOUT BOOKSHOP BARNIES
Bookshop Barnies are ‘alternative book launches’ in that they ask authors to present the core ideas of their book in just FIVE minutes... and then we have a bit of a barnie before coming out for questions and comments from the audience.
NB: You DO NOT have to read this book in advance. Kathleen’s job is to convince you that it’d be a good idea. That said, the book is available via Amazon.
This event is FREE & ONLINE but please register on EVENTBRITE. We will send the Zoom link to registrants nearer the day.
DATE: Monday 20 April 2026
TIME: 7:00pm-8:30pm (UK-time)
I look forward to seeing you there.
Austin Williams
convenor, Bookshop Barnies