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11
Sept
How did Harrogate district MPs vote on the assisted dying bill?
Harrogate district MPs voted on a fresh move to legalise assisted dying in England and Wales today (September 11).
The bill would have allowed adults with fewer than six months to live to apply to be given help to end their own life, subject to certain safeguards.
However, MPs voted against the bill — with 270 voting for and 286 against.
Tom Gordon, Liberal Democrat MP for Harrogate and Knaresborough, voted for the bill this afternoon.
Meanwhile, Sir Julian Smith, Conservative MP for Skipton and Ripon, and Sir Alec Shelbrooke, Conservative MP for Wetherby and Easingwold, which includes Boroughbridge, voted against the bill.
Tom Gordon MP speaking in the House of Commons.
Speaking in the House of Commons debate, Mr Gordon reflected on two deaths in his own family's life to make the case for change.
He told MPs about his mum's uncle, who was terminally ill and cared for by his mum in his final months. It was Mr Gordon’s mum who found him. He was on the floor of his home, she told her son — as if he had been trying to reach the door on the other side of the room, where his shotgun hung.
He also shared the story of a former neighbour, a pig farmer, who was suffering in great pain from a terminal illness. One summer's day, Mr Gordon heard a loud bang from across the road. He ran over, and along with his gran, found him dead.
Mr Gordon said he didn't know whether either man would have chosen an assisted death, had the option existed, but added that they deserved better than what happened to them.
He went on to speak about his mum, who had breast cancer and is now in remission. With two separate tumours in her own history, she lives with the fear that it could return.
He described the comfort she and her friends in her cancer support group feel at the idea of having control and choice at the end of life.
Mr Gordon said:
For my mum, she's made clear that if her breast cancer were to return, she wouldn't want to go through the ordeal and trauma of surgery and chemotherapy again.
She already lives with lasting nerve damage and a reduced quality of life as a result of the cancer she's already had.
The bill is the second time that an attempt to change the law on assisted dying has returned to the House of Commons.
The last bill ran out of time to become law in April this year. Despite MPs backing the bill, it failed to clear hurdles the House of Lords where it stalled.
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