Yesterday, Wendy and I arranged to meet with Ben Lake, our MP, at the Pantyfedwen Foundation building in Aberystwyth.  We wanted to understand his thinking on four current bioethical issues.

 

First, the decriminalisation of abortion.  Two MPs with extreme views on abortion, namely Diana Johnson and Stella Creasy, have tabled amendments to the upcoming Criminal Justice Bill.  These would allow abortion for any reason, up to 40 weeks, with no legal sanctions.  Mr Lake acknowledged these were severe amendments and far too serious to be merged into this catch-all Bill.  He also thought, and hoped, that either, or neither, would be selected by the Speaker of the House for debate.  Though he was uneasy about these amendments, his position cannot be described as entirely pro-life.  Whatever, the all-important Report stage of this Bill is on Wednesday 15 May.

 

Second, Mr Lake was unaware of Caroline Ansell’s Bill that would reduce the current upper abortion time limit from 24 to 22 weeks.  This is in line with advances in the neonatal care of newborns, who are now not only regularly born, but also survive, at this age.  Mr Lake favourably saw the logic of this and intended to follow it up.

 

Third, Liam Fox has tabled his Down’s Syndrome Bill, which would lower those ghastly abortions up to 40 weeks for the disabled to 24 weeks, the same upper limit as most other abortions.  Specifically, it would eliminate the apartheid that labels the disabled as second-class citizens with lives that are not worthy to be lived.  This Bill already has 55 sponsors.  Mr Lake has declared himself strongly in favour too.

 

Fourth, we talked about the principles, prospects and problems of assisted suicide / euthanasia.  Mr Lake, quite rightly, is troubled by the seemingly impossible way of tightly drafting the qualifying criteria.  Such legislation typically starts with rigid boundaries and safeguards for the terminally ill, but then rapidly slithers down the slippery slope and opens up assisted suicide for the mentally ill and now even those who are ’tired of life’.  Such deaths have increased by four times in the Netherlands since its legalisation in 2005.  In Canada, there were 1,000 deaths by MAiD (Medical Assistance in Death) at its inception in 2016 – the latest figure is a whopping 13,000.  Though Mr Lake is mildly in favour of choice at the end of life, he is troubled about the pressure assisted suicide can exert on the vulnerable and coerced.  We talked about the need for better palliative care.  He is aware of the work of HAHAV (Hospice at Home Aberystwyth Volunteers) and was impressed by Wendy’s involvement.

 

Our meeting lasted a good 30 minutes.  There were several questions we forgot to ask him.  What is the basis of his moral framework?  Does he have any church involvement?  When does he think human life begins?  Has he had recent representations from others of a pro-life persuasion?  And so on.  These are for another time.

 

We were unexpectedly impressed by Mr Lake.  Previous Plaid Cymru MPs have been somewhat austere and unsympathetic.  He was warm and genuinely interested in what we had to say.  We left on a friendly footing, and I gave him a copy of my Bioethical Issues book, which he said he would read during his train trips to London.

 

He can be contacted at ben.lake.mp@parliament.uk

 

With Christian greetings,

 

            John.

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  Dr John R. Ling, 4 Cefn Melindwr, Capel Bangor, Aberystwyth SY23 3LS.
 
                   phone: 01970-880-416   mobile: 07974-113-283 
                             website: http://www.johnling.co.uk
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