Cat Eccles sums up the moral rot of ‘assisted dying’

It’s starting to become clear why Kim Leadbeater’s assisted-dying bill has been rushed through the UK parliament with such minimal debate, with MPs given just five hours to discuss it before a vote. Because the more the bill’s proponents speak, the more they unwittingly reveal its dangers.

Exhibit A is Cat Eccles, the Labour MP for Stourbridge, who last week made two of the most absurd and objectionable interventions in the debate so far.

In parliament on Friday, Eccles raised a point of order to object to the use of the word ‘suicide’. Danny Kruger, a Tory MP and prominent opponent of assisted dying, raised fears that the NHS would soon be turned into a ‘state suicide service’. Eccles claimed this was ‘offensive’ and ‘incorrect’, and urged him to ‘correct your language’.

On a point of order, Labour MP objects to Danny Kruger's 'offensive' use of the word 'suicide'

Kruger: "The value of actually have a bill in black and white is that we do need to see what the law really is: what this bill would do, it would amend the Suicide Act of 1961." pic.twitter.com/Wln3Yv3qWk

— Josh Self (@Josh_Self_) November 29, 2024

Of course, the truth is that the bill is designed explicitly to amend the Suicide Act 1961. Its very purpose is to allow medical staff to assist terminally ill patients to kill themselves. The use of the term ‘suicide’ is entirely appropriate here. Eccles’s objection to Kruger’s plain speaking suggests that proponents of what they euphemistically call ‘assisted dying’ are unwilling to reckon with the horrors they are unleashing.

Even more alarmingly, earlier the same day on Sky News, Kay Burley put it to Eccles that many elderly and disabled people would feel coerced into killing themselves if assisted dying is legalised. Eccles waved this away by claiming that ‘most coercion’ happens when relatives ‘try to talk loved ones out of having an assisted death’, as if it is some sort of problem if a patient is persuaded not to kill herself.

"People have got some reservations."

Labour MP @catecclesstour tells @KayBurley why some people may be opposed to the assisted dying bill.https://t.co/PAiZ4D1jU3

📺 Sky 501, Virgin 602, Freeview 233 and YouTube pic.twitter.com/Lu0kfc5RFo

— Sky News (@SkyNews) November 28, 2024

It gets worse. When the Sky News clip was shared on X by Telegraph sketch writer Madeline Grant, Eccles accused Grant of ‘purposefully misrepresenting’ her point, before then doubling down on precisely that ghoulish claim about patients being ‘coerced’ out of assisted dying. She also whinged about her intervention in parliament being written about ‘in a national paper’, as if the words of an elected MP are not worthy of press scrutiny.

Cat Eccles’s comments may seem uniquely deranged, but they actually sum up the broader moral rot of the ‘assisted dying’ movement, which devalues certain lives and gives moral sanction to suicide. There will be truly dark days ahead if this bill becomes law.

Fraser Myers is deputy editor at spiked and host of the spiked podcast. Follow him on X: @FraserMyers.