Assisted Dying adverts
And funding from a US-based Population Program that aims "to stabilize global populations at levels that promote social and economic well-being and sustain the environment"
Dear Church Leaders (and everyone else)
I was going to put the content of this post in the forthcoming Updates (Dec 2024) article. But given that the vote on the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, a private members’ bill introduced by Labour MP Kim Leadbeater, is scheduled for tomorrow, I think it makes sense to publish it now.
One of the most striking things I have seen recently is this footage of Assisted Dying adverts on the London Underground at Westminster, i.e. the tube station used by MPs travelling to Parliament:
This seems somewhat odd, to say the least, for a Private Members’ Bill.
And particularly given that it was only last year that Transport for London apparently banned a wedding-cake theatre poster for “breaching obesity rules”:
I recommend looking at some of the recent articles by Charlotte Gill — the journalist in the short video above, who has been investigating what is actually going on — and particularly The Assisted Dying Lobby and its publicists.
As doctor and ethicist Calum Miller points out, Kim Leadbeater, who is the sponsor of the Assisted Dying Bill, is — or at least was1 — the Chair of More in Common (UK website)…2
which has recently been promoting polling in favour of assisted suicide, such as this report:3
And More in Common —registered as a UK company — is funded by…
…among others, the US-based William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, whose “Population Program”…
…pursues two complementary goals:
to enhance and protect the reproductive health and rights of individuals and
to stabilize global populations at levels that promote social and economic well-being and sustain the environment
Make of that what you will.
I can’t help wondering what “the father of public relations” — featured in Tuesday’s post — would say…
Dear Church Leaders most-read articles
Some posts, including a version of this one, can also be found on Unexpected Turns
The Big Reveal: Christianity carefully considered
Either way, I did not find mention of More in Common in Leadbeater’s Registered Interests
Calum Miller responds here to those who have suggested that Kim Leadbeater and her bill have no association with More in Common UK, because her primary connection is with More in Common Batley and Spen
It is of course important to read what polls actually say. While this article in The Times —based on the More in Common poll — is headlined “Two thirds of country back assisted dying”, that is hardly an accurate reflection of the content.
But in any case I’ve been pretty sceptical of opinion polls ever since I first saw this particularly fine exchange in an episode of Yes, Prime Minister:
And of course there’s always the question of how participants are selected in the first place. Plus the interests of the people involved. During the covid era — when covid injections were being pushed on schoolchildren — Boris Johnson’s Education Secretary was Nadhim Zahawi, whose own website states:
In 2000 he founded YouGov… Having started life in an office in Nadhim’s garden shed, YouGov now employs over 400 people on three continents. He floated the company on the London Stock Exchange in 2005... In January 2010 he stood down from YouGov to run for election as Member of Parliament…