A DISABLED peer said he fears he would not be alive today if assisted dying was already legal.
Lord Kevin Shinkwin said the “puts a price on my head”; and he would have felt pressure to agree to having a over fear of being a burden.
The warning comes as campaigners vow to fight the assisted dying bill in the Lords after MPs narrowly backed it by just 23 votes on Friday.
Lord Shinkwin, 54, is a rights campaigner who has a severe form of brittle bone disease.
He said: “I am a disabled person. I cost the NHS, over the course of my lifetime, probably several million pounds to keep me alive.
“This Bill would put a price on my head — on the head of so many disabled people.”;
Asked if he feared he would not be alive today if the assisted dying law was in force, Lord Shinkwin said: “I think you have hit the nail on the head.
“Absolutely. I was in intensive care a few months ago, and had a doctor come over to me when I was extremely vulnerable and said, ‘Have you considered assisted dying?’, I would have felt under real pressure to do that.”;
Lord Shinkwin said he and other peers will now amend the Bill so it has greater safeguards.
As it is a private member’s Bill and not a government initiative, some peers are vowing to try to block it altogether.
