Left image – Wikimedia Commons: Official portrait of Shabana Mahmood MP
The Secretary of State for Justice has warned that MP Kim Leadbeater’s assisted suicide bill is being rushed through Parliament without adequate scrutiny.
Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain Shabana Mahmood says that not enough time has been allocated to debate the enormity of legalising assisted suicide in England and Wales.
Leadbeater’s Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill seeks to legalise assisted suicide for terminally ill adults given six months to live. A debate and vote at the bill’s third reading is expected to take place on 13 June.
“I do think that this process has shown the inadequacies of private members’ bills as a vehicle for such wide societal change”, Mahmood said.
She continued: “There are huge implications here and the debate that we’re having is curtailed, it is short. We saw that last Friday. I don’t think it’s the right thing to do.”
On Friday 16 May, MPs debated the Leadbeater bill. Over 100 amendments were proposed, but only two were given time before the session ended.
Labour MP Jess Asato said that several MPs who sought amendments did not have a chance to speak. “How can we call that a debate when we haven’t even heard why they are proposing amendments in the first place?” Asato complained. Posting on X, Conservative MP Tom Tugendhat had the following to say:
Leadbeater was also slammed for not being present throughout the entire debate. “Is it not a discourtesy to the House and those who have spent some considerable time working on amendments on both sides of the argument, for her [Leadbeater] not to be here, to hear what they are advocating?” said Conservative MP Simon Hoare.
SPUC has continued to call out the absence of safeguards in Leadbeater’s bill, as well as the inherent danger in assisted suicide, which many MPs and experts have also warned against.
Concerns have been raised about potential coercion and vulnerable people – especially the elderly and the disabled – feeling pressured into assisted suicide.
In a letter to fellow parliamentarians, six Labour MPs recently slammed the bill as “irredeemably flawed and not fit to become law”.
Of particular worry to MPs was the scrapping of the High Court judge rule, proposed by Leadbeater as a vital safeguarding measure that would identify coercion.
“Our efforts have not succeeded in improving the bill and we cannot recommend a vote in favour of it”, the letter continued. “It is our hope that the bill will not progress in its current form, and that a better way can be found to take forward the vital conversation about choice at the end of life.”
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