THE Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill came a step closer to becoming law after completing its Committee Stage last month (Leader comment, 4 April).
On first glance, the potential implications of this proposed law for those — mainly women — who suffer from domestic abuse and coercive control might not seem obvious. But, in recent weeks, I have seen the dawning realisation on the faces of those who begin to work through these implications in their minds: assisted dying could open up a new pathway to premature death for some of the most vulnerable women.
That most people are not aware of this — including some who see themselves as fierce advocates for equality and women’s rights, and are also in favour of assisted dying in principle — shows that many people have not thought through the widespread implications of this landmark legislation.
Women who are abused by male partners may find themselves in such horrific situations that they see no way out but death. Figures released last month by the Domestic Homicide Project found that, in the year to March 2024, 98 women are suspected to have taken their own life after domestic abuse. Over the same 12-month period, a further 80 women were killed by a partner. Now, if the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill becomes law, and if women who experience domestic abuse also have a terminal diagnosis, they will have a new legal pathway to ending their lives — one that an abusive partner can exploitl
DURING the past year, in the run-up to the vote on Kim Leadbeater’s Bill, there has been much heated debate about the principles of assisted dying. Within the decades-long discussion, there has always been criticism of religious voices engaging in the debate. Before MPs voted at the Second Reading in November, Lord Falconer — a strong proponent of assisted dying — criticised the Justice Secretary, Shabana Mahmood, the most senior Muslim Cabinet member, for opposing the Bill. She was, he said, “motivated . . . by her religious beliefs”, which “shouldn’t be imposed on everybody else”.
It is with these ideas in the background — related to the false assumption that religious views are in some way more unreliable than non-religious, and that secular views are objective views (they are not) — that I was glad that it was women of faith who joined us at Theos in taking a stand last week.
Compelled by our religious traditions and scriptures, more than 100 women of faith from across religions, politics, ethnicities, and theologies, united with us, Restored, the Faith and VAWG Coalition, and Jewish Women’s Aid, to express our concerns about the impact of assisted-dying legislation on some of the most vulnerable women.
Eight bishops, including the Bishops of London, Gloucester, Dover, and Stepney, joined women from across the Christian tradition, as well as Muslim, Jewish, and Sikh women, as signatories to the open letter, calling for better safeguards for women in the legislation that is making its way through Parliament.
Supporters of the Bill say that they have, indeed, addressed many of the concerns, through the hundreds of amendments that have been made on various themes. One of the amendments includes some changes aimed at addressing concerns about its impact on victims of domestic abuse. There will now be training for medical practitioners and panel members involved in the process to attempt to enable them to judge better whether a prospective patient is at risk of being coerced into assisted dying.
But it is not clear what nature that training would take. As the Labour MP Jess Asato, who is one of the leading voices on the issue of assisted dying and domestic abuse, has said, training is not enough. “Training is better than no training, but no amount of training will prevent victims of abuse from slipping through the net,” she wrote on Politics Home. “Domestic abuse can be incredibly subtle, to the extent that even victims are unaware of it, and it seems inevitable that victims will be coerced into an untimely death, regardless of what safeguards are in place.” Furthermore, the safeguard will come into play only after someone may already have been coerced into saying that they want an assisted death. It would take effect too late.
According to Dr Jamilla Hussain, a palliative-care doctor, who spoke at a gathering of women of faith organised by Theos before the publication of the open letter, it would take weeks of close observation and conversation for practitioners to be able to determine whether someone was suffering abuse and coercive control. These forms of abuse are well-hidden, particularly among racialised minorities and faith groups.
For Dr Hussain, who has worked for the past few years exploring end-of-life care in disadvantaged communities, among them Pakistani, Roma, and Black Caribbean community groups, there are particular structural disadvantages — cultural sensitivities that would need to be taken into account in any assessment of assisted dying for patients from such backgrounds.
For signatories to the open letter, the particularities of domestic violence in faith-based settings need special expertise, understanding, and religious literacy, when it comes to matters of life and death. In faith-based households, perpetrators have been known to weaponise theologies and culture to harm and control their victims.
WHETHER or not we believe in the principle of assisted dying, we must all be committed to ensuring that the most marginalised in our communities are not disproportionately affected if the Bill becomes law. When it comes to women abused by their partners, domestic-homicide reviews reveal that a disproportionate number of Black and ethnic-minority women are failed by statutory and state agencies — from the police to social services and the NHS — despite their calls for help. We know, too, that many feel that there is insufficient protection for those with learning disabilities and people with eating disorders.
It is the marginalised and the vulnerable whose voices are not being heard in the corridors of power on this debate. This is why — in an increasingly polarised world — it was heartening to see women from very different backgrounds come together in their commitment to speaking up for those who are not invited to speak for themselves.
Chine McDonald is the director of Theos.
