Prime Minister Boris Johnson will reportedly not support plans to impose assisted suicide in England and Wales, he has concluded, after reviewing a proposed change outlined in Baroness Meacher’s Assisted Dying Bill.
Baroness Meacher’s private member’s Bill is due to have its second reading in the House of Lords in two weeks, with a view to it being debated in the House of Commons next year.
The Bill would allow terminally ill persons to receive assisted dying if approved by two independent doctors and a High Court judge. The individual seeking to die would be prescribed lethal medication, which they would take themselves.
So far, the current government has not taken a definitive stand on assisted suicide, leaving it up to the individual consciences of MPs.
Prime Minister Johnson has previously voted against assisted suicide in 2015. However, in 2014, Mr. Johnson stated: “I am sure it is a change the public broadly supports, and one whose time has come.”
Gordon Macdonald, CEO of Care Not Killing, commenting on news that Mr. Johnson will not support the new bid to make assisted suicide legal, said: “Given that we’ve learned [since 2015] that the proposed system of assisted suicide has led to scores of botched and painful deaths in other jurisdictions, it’s no surprise he opposes it now.”
An attempt to introduce similar legislation in Scotland is also ongoing.
SPUC comment
A SPUC spokesperson said: “SPUC sincerely hopes that it is true that Prime Minister Boris Johnson will not support this dangerous new bill.
“We know that in countries where assisted suicide is legal, many vulnerable people, not wishing to be a ‘burden’, feel pressured into taking their own lives.
“Indeed, 34% of Canadians killed by assisted suicide said they feared being a burden on family and carers.
“We cannot allow this to happen in the United Kingdom.”
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