Last week, Prue Leith hosted a Parliamentary event with Dignity in Dying to call for reforms to assisted dying law. Following the event Laura said:
"A number of constituents wrote to me to ask me to attend Prue Leith's event in Parliament about Dignity in Dying and I’m so glad they did.
"This is an issue on which my own thinking has evolved. I started as an MP pretty sceptical about assisted dying. I worried that it would become a fast track to something more sinister - where elderly people become convinced (or are pressurised into believing) that they have become an expensive burden to their families and ask doctors to sanction an early end to their lives. And if I’m honest, I still don't think that the law that is proposed has sufficient safeguards against this.
"However I have met some amazing campaigners and families who have made an extremely compelling case for assisted suicide and I have been inspired by the work that some of my constituents have undertaken on this. I do actually think that it could be possible to construct a workable law on this and I don’t think politicians should shy away from difficult moral questions.
"And I certainly agree with the main theme of this event - that it is time for a proper Parliamentary debate to discuss this sensitive complex issue."
Last year, Laura also wrote on this subject for the Newbury Weekly News. You can read the column here.