Fiona Mackenzie MBE

Highlander, in London.
Now @otherhalforg. Made @wecantconsentto. Trustee of @centreWJ.

[The Other Half @OtherHalfOrg]

"We nearly ended up with laws that would have allowed almost anyone with a terminal diagnosis to have an assisted death, including for reasons that had nothing directly to do with their illness: homelessness, loneliness, chronic depression, or even a desire to escape an abusive relationship"

[Fiona Mackenzie MBE @fionamacmac]

Their most recent accounts now out:

Going Concern: 'the directors consider that there are no material uncertainties about the company's ability to continue as a going concern'

Surely plans to fold operations should be mentioned here?? Unless....

https://t.co/eZr07aK6fM

[Fiona Mackenzie MBE @fionamacmac]

But Dignity in Dying promised The Times they'd fold once this is law!

Given law could pass in 2026 they should really have a note in their accounts to say they plan to wind up next year.... unless of course, this means they plan to keep campaigning...

[Dan Hitchens @ddhitchens]

Dignity in Dying are looking for a new Treasurer. Certainly no intention of disbanding if the bill passes:

“With the organisation likely to see huge cultural and legal shifts...all Board members need to be innovative in their approach to help build sustainable funding stream.”

[Fiona Mackenzie MBE @fionamacmac]

https://t.co/uHhvNrbbDD

[The Other Half @OtherHalfOrg]

Today babies of 9 months older in England will have up to 30 hours a week of govt funded childcare as part of a big push to increase women's working hours and reduce the cost of living for those families where 2 parents are in work. But is this what mums really want? Although it's presented as a victory for feminists, as this mum told us: mums want more time, not less, with children in the crucial early years.

If women are truly to have choice: we need long and funded maternity leave. Separate leave for dads. An economy that affords having children. Work that allows for career breaks and part time working. Will we get it? Government is reviewing parental leave now, with a real chance to increase the choice that mums have to spend time with their young children.

[The Other Half @OtherHalfOrg]

Timeline joy. Women sing doing the waulking of Harris tweed, 1941.

[The Other Half @OtherHalfOrg]

Two amendments may reduce (not eliminate) the risk that women with eating disorders here are also given lethal drugs.

#14 Voluntary Stopping of Eating and Drinking

#38 'terminal' anorexia

Speaker chose 14. Not 38. Anorexia loophole wide open.

MPs must vote NO on this bill

[The Other Half @OtherHalfOrg]

"Westminster leads the world in recognising and responding to domestic abuse, and that means we can't pretend not to see the risk that this #AssistedDyingBill presents to victims of it"

[The Other Half @OtherHalfOrg]

This is why any safeguards which make it into the Assisted Death bill will soon become portrayed as 'barriers' to equal right of access. The safeguards will then start to be removed.

As has happened in Australia and Canada within a few short years.

'Safeguards become barriers':

[Alicia Duncan @aliciaduncan_xo]

I’m a grieving daughter of a woman who was not terminal (suffering from anorexia) and euthanized three days after a suicide attempt. I now suffer from PTSD. This bill leaves too many cracks for vulnerable people to fall through.

[Fiona Mackenzie MBE @fionamacmac]

'drastic action behind closed doors'

Very disturbing and misguided slogan, given Dignity in Dying's longtime campaign for leniency for men who kill their wives in 'mercy killings', including some men who had a history of violent assault of female partners.

[Dignity in Dying @dignityindying]

Banning assisted dying makes no one safer, it just forces people to take drastic action behind closed doors.

Law change will make us all safer. #YesToDignity

[The Other Half @OtherHalfOrg]

"When people are in distress and despair, we look out for them"

"that previously unchallengeable idea that human life is worth it"

"now people want to chip away at that historical consensus"

"For me, that's very dangerous"

@ProfLAppleby on ASSISTED 🎙️podcast

[Fiona Mackenzie MBE @fionamacmac]

And yes it's because caring for children doesn't count in gdp and fixing work and housing are "hard".

https://t.co/NQQWYbjIyu

[Fiona Mackenzie MBE @fionamacmac]

As ever transfixed by the gulf between the government's offer to mums (spend less time with infant children!/work more hours) and what mums tell them they want (MORE time with infant children/work that fits around children). Why don't we listen to mums?

[The (Re)valuation of Motherhood @MumsAreGreat]

It's fair to say that this week's Breakfast Club messaging by government was a dud with the mums of instagram

[Fiona Mackenzie MBE @fionamacmac]

I genuinely thought that our (unpaid!) campaign @Wecantconsentto would shift thinking in well funded orgs. But seemingly the opposite happened.

Maddening and depressing and a disgraceful failure of girls @WelshGovernment (and England's @educationgovuk who have also done nothing)

[We Can't Consent To This @Wecantconsentto]

In 2021 we won a new offence of 'non fatal strangulation' after 'choking' in sex had become so widespread young women told us they thought "it was normal".

We expected that charities, govt and sex ed would help stop this. But no.

We Can't Consent to This:

[The Other Half @OtherHalfOrg]

"I'm appalled by the development of the notion of terminal anorexia" says @ProfLAppleby

NEW 🎙️ASSISTED episode out now, on this, assisted death, protecting the vulnerable, and more. 🔗👇

[The Other Half @OtherHalfOrg]

We've lost so much. 1959 Liverpool.

If we want 'play-based childhoods', children need to be able to play together outside and close to home: in the street.

[Fiona Mackenzie MBE @fionamacmac]

@thelizcarr @soniasodha @jillongovt Oho! Kim wanted to do a bill on puppy smuggling but was persuaded otherwise...

https://t.co/ku5YIMhiqf

[Fiona Mackenzie MBE @fionamacmac]

Still astounded that Kim wanted to do a bill on puppy smuggling, but took enormity of AD on with no hinterland on it, after being approached by multiple orgs to sell their cause when she got picked for PMB.
Puppies PMB wd not have had staff lurking in private women's meetings...

[Rajiv Shah @RajivShah90]

This is how the TIA Bill committee accommodates it's disabled members

Make of that what you will

[Fiona Mackenzie MBE @fionamacmac]

@Jebadoo2 Interesting that the shift in medical organisations' positions on assisting suicide comes after diligent and targeted campaigning over the last decade (including legal action by @GoodLawProject) - very effective it has been too.

https://t.co/U0pggjKgpD

[The Other Half @OtherHalfOrg]

The @rcgp changes stance on assisted death. Here's @thelizcarr insight on what @dignityindying focused on when the last big bill -opposed by Drs and disability orgs - failed in 2015.

"The campaign has been to go round and work with the Drs' orgs and get the votes brought in"