agreed by consensus of the Disability Activism Society

written by Ali Wilkin

edited by John Urquhart

We note with extreme regret that the Isle of Man has become the first place in the UK to vote for assisted suicide (as disabled people we will not refer to it by the euphemistic “assisted dying”). 

We have deep concerns about this Bill, in a number of areas.  Firstly and most obviously, the goal of the Bill itself. We remain bitterly opposed to assisted suicide as a Party led on disability issues by disabled people. We particularly recognise the limited objections to this Bill. We are saddened at an absence of disabled voices in the media coverage of this development. But then, too, we have deep concerns regarding the campaign group which led the campaign on the Isle of Man (My Death, My Decision). 

We further have more familiar concerns with the failure of the media to include disabled people’s voices throughout the debate - a debate ultimately dominated by doctors both for and against. 

The idea that someone must be terminally ill and “reasonably expected” to die within 12 months is a concept with major flaws. It is especially so in comparison to the proposed UK legislation. That legislation, introduced by Kim Leadbeater, Labour MP, is opposed by a large number of disabled people and DPO’s - and there the time frame is 6 months. 

This is an area of medicine which is not an exact science, as evidenced by an improvement in the health of one of the major sponsors of the Bill itself - Esther Ranson. Further, there are as many times where doctors can be wrong about that time frame as right: they make educated guesses. This more extended period of time is, therefore, worrying.

Both more worrying and very related are concerns around safeguarding against coercion. As Isle of Man GP Dr Martin Rankin, a member of the Medical Society, observed: "The safeguards that are in place on this one, I'm not going to know if somebody has been coerced by a relative into ending their life sooner than they wish. So I really won't be getting involved in it." 

In no small part due to the normalised exclusion of disabled voices by the media it is doctors who have most loudly voiced fears of this Bill presenting a slippery slope. In 2023, in a poll by the Medical Society, slightly more than one third of GPs said they would consider leaving the Isle of Man if the bill passed.

We further have concerns with the campaign group involved in this process, My Death My Decision, and we are particularly concerned with the manner in which they portray disabled people’s views on assisted suicide, as well as their description of euthanasia on their website, which we consider to be deeply disingenuous. 

On their website, MDMD claim that 88% of people who “identify as having long standing conditions” support ‘assisted dying’ (according to a survey conducted by Natcen); and that disability organisations are “...either neutral, or don’t have a stance on assisted…” and they name four organisations with that position. 

In the first instance - whilst disabled people are not a monolith, a huge number of disabled people have been vehemently campaigning against the introduction of the UK legislation, ourselves included. There are many individual disabled people we can point to, such as actor Liz Carr. She made a stunning and profound documentary called Better Off Dead, which the BBC aired. She is far from alone; former paralympic athlete Tanni Grey-Thompson, who sits in the House of Lords, has spoken out forcefully against the Westminster legislation. 

The organisations that MDMD point to are not DPO’s (Disabled People's Organisations), all of which have spoken out against the legislation. (A disabled person’s organisation is led by disabled people.) The manner in which they represent disabled voices is therefore, at best, disingenuous, and at worst dishonest. 

This further extends to their description of euthanasia. In that description the possibility of it being perpetrated against someone who is not willing is omitted, making euthanasia seem merely a method by which suffering is ended. 

For the Isle of Man, for Jersey, and on current trajectory perhaps the whole of the UK, a very troubling future of struggle for disabled people’s liberation awaits.