Thank you for contacting me regarding assisted dying.
Coping with terminal illness is unimaginably distressing and difficult both for the patient and their families.
I fully accept that suicide, assisting or encouraging suicide, assisted dying and euthanasia are all subjects on which it is entirely possible for people to hold widely different but defensible opinions. This is why the substance of the law in this area is not a matter of party politics but of conscience, and any vote would be a free one should the law in this area ever be altered.
As you may know, a debate was held in Parliament on 4 July 2022. This was the first time this topic was discussed in Parliament for some time.
My own view is that competent adults who are terminally ill should be provided at their request with specified assistance to end their own life, so long as any mechanism was iron-clad against abuse and manipulation.