I was a little surprised when I realised that I am currently the only person in the House of Commons with current experience in palliative and terminal care.
That fact has, for better or worse, meant that over the last few weeks I have had a rather higher profile than most newly elected MPs. It has been a learning experience for me and my team.
Reflecting on my experiences as a GP with a number of terminally ill patients, I felt an obligation to get involved in the assisted dying debate. Even before I was elected, I had organised, chaired and spoken at meetings on this, nationally and internationally. Working with my team, between us we have been in touch with every MP in the House of Commons. I have been interviewed on the national news and written in the papers from the Express to the Guardian about it. With Kim Leadbeater’s team, we delivered personalised letters to every MP, with extra information about the various provisions of the bill. In the final week we engaged directly with 83 undecided MPs to address their concerns and answer any questions regarding the bill.
I’m not going to rehearse the arguments again here. That debate will now continue as the Bill passes into the committee stage, and is worked up into legislation, which will be presented again to Parliament next year. But I do think that it is a really good thing for the nation to be discussing this.
Many people, myself included, have noticed that the debate in the House of Commons last Friday, while full of emotion, and with passionate and heartfelt speeches on both sides, was conducted meaningfully and seriously. MPs actually listened to each other. Points were made and taken, and it felt like we were having a proper debate. I think we saw a better side of Parliament than is often the case.
Party politics has its advantages, but is ill equipped to deal with what you might call ‘issues of conscience’. In all honesty, this bothers me. Why, last Friday, could we engage with people who passionately hold the exact opposite view to ourselves?
And I think that the answer is, at least partly, in the word ‘respect’. I hope we can all learn something from that.
