Image Source: House of Commons
The dangerous assisted suicide Bill has been reintroduced to Parliament, in an almost identical form to the legislation debated during the previous parliamentary session.
Labour MP Lauren Edwards published her Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill on the day MPs left Westminster for the summer recess, leaving MPs with extremely limited parliamentary time to consider the legislation before its Second Reading on 11th September.
The Bill is largely a reproduction of the assisted suicide legislation previously introduced by Kim Leadbeater MP, which passed the House of Commons but failed to complete its passage through Parliament after running out of time in the House of Lords.
A comparison of the two Bills shows only two substantive changes.
The first concerns the voluntary stopping of eating and drinking (VSED). While the previous Bill stated that someone could qualify for assisted suicide solely because they had voluntarily stopped eating or drinking, the new wording tightens that previous loophole. Reduced intake of food and drink resulting from a mental disorder that subsequently causes illness is no longer a justification for an assisted suicide.
The second amendment requires the Prime Minister to consult Welsh Ministers before appointing the Voluntary Assisted Dying Commissioner. This gives Wales a formal consultative role in the appointment process but does not alter the operation of the proposed assisted suicide regime.
Otherwise, the legislation retains the same eligibility criteria, so-called “safeguards,” waiting periods, and review process as the previous Bill.
The legislation still contains many of the concerns raised during scrutiny of the previous Bill by medical Royal Colleges, professional bodies, the House of Lords, the Equality and Human Rights Commission, and disability, mental health and domestic abuse organisations.
The Bill’s reintroduction also means that, if it again passes the House of Commons but runs out of time or is rejected by the House of Lords, supporters can seek to use the Parliament Acts to override the upper chamber. The Acts allow, in certain circumstances, legislation approved by the Commons in successive parliamentary sessions to become law without the consent of the Lords. They have never been used on a bill without government sponsorship before.
The death lobby have openly admitted that this is their goal.
Alithea Williams, SPUC’s Public Policy Manager, said: “That Miss Edwards has published the same flawed bill shows how desperate the pro-assisted suicide lobby are to push this through, and the complete contempt for the myriad of legitimate concerns raised about it. It’s staggering that they have the arrogance to ignore concerns from the medical colleges, disability groups, domestic abuse advocates and more. We must cut short this undemocratic plan to push the Bill through using the Parliament Acts, by making sure MPs vote it down on 11th September.”
“This requires a massive effort from our supporters across the country,” she continued. “We need every MP lobbied in person by their constituents. Now that Parliament is in recess, MPs will be spending the summer in their local constituencies, so it is the perfect time to book a meeting with them. We have produced a range of resources that can be found at spuc.org.uk/campaign/assistedsuicideuk to help you to do this. Please do all you can in these weeks to lobby your MP and get this Bill thrown out.”
Click here to view the full text of the Bill
