'People shouldn't have to go abroad' - Dudley MP explains why she is voting for assisted dying bill

Sonia Kumar, MP for Dudley, said she had thought long and hard about the proposed legislation, which would allow terminally ill adults with six months or less to live to get medical assistance to end their own lives.

Miss Kumar, said she had found it a very difficult decision, which she had thought long and hard about.

"I'm a Sikh, and it goes against my religion, but I am not voting on the basis of my personal religious beliefs," she said.

"I believe people should have the choice about how they spend the end of their lives."

Miss Kumar said she was satisfied with the safeguards in the Bill, which included a requirement that only people who were expected to have less than six months to live. Assisted deaths would need to be approved  by two doctors and a panel featuring a social worker, a senior legal figure and a psychiatrist, which she said would prevent people ending their lives due to mental illness. 

She said as a physiotherapist who had also worked in intensive care, she had seen patients who had been forced to endure intolerable pain. She said it was wrong that people felt forced to travel to other countries to end their lives.

"People shouldn't be going abroad to end their suffering," she said. "We should give them the choice." 

The vote is expected to take place later this afternoon.