A Bill to legalise assisted suicide for the terminally ill will be introduced to the UK Parliament on Friday
Currently, assisting someone to end their life is a criminal offence in England and Wales. But a British Labour Life peer aims to change that. He will be introducing a dangerous and damaging Bill to the House of Lords on Friday that will legalise euthanasia. This is his fifth attempt. But this time it’s different as he has Sir Keir Starmer’s backing.
Former Labour justice secretary Lord Falconer of Thoroton has tabled a private member’s Bill – the Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults Bill – to allow those in England and Wales with less than six months to live to end their life with assistance.
A private member’s Bill is a type of public Bill – meaning it aims to change the law as it applies to the general population – introduced to the UK Parliament by a backbench MP or peer, not a government minister.
Starmer has said he is in favour of a change in the law and will allow Members of Parliament to vote on the issue according to their conscience. But, according to the Daily Mail, the Prime Minister has indicated that while he will make time for a Commons vote, it is not likely to happen for at least a year.
In Scotland, a Member’s Bill, introduced by Liam McArthur MSP in March, proposes similar legislation for terminally ill adults. In 2021 McArthur carried out a public consultation on his Bill. Responding to the consultation, The Church of Scotland wrote:
Although the term “assisted dying” is used in the title of the proposed Bill, what is actually being proposed is assisted suicide …
The current societal prohibition on killing is clear; to move away from this would involve more than a simple modification of the law, but would represent a significant shift from which there would be no return. This would have profound effects on how society regards those in our communities who are vulnerable. This is not just the elderly and infirm, but also those with disabilities, and those who are unable to speak up to protect themselves.
Response to the Proposed Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill, Church of Scotland
When McArthur introduced the Bill to the Scottish Parliament in March, disability rights groups again expressed concerns about potential pressure on vulnerable people to end their lives and the potential for abuse.
Dr. Gillian Wright, a former palliative medicine registrar now representing Our Duty of Care, an alliance of healthcare professionals opposing assisted dying, said: “The primary danger of assisted suicide is that individual lives are devalued by society because they are ill, disabled, confused or that their contribution to society is perceived to be minimal. The secondary danger is that terminally ill and disabled individuals may begin to devalue themselves because of the burden that they perceive they are to society.”
The Scottish Bill is currently at Stage 1, the Parliamentary Committee stage.
Now in England and Wales, we are faced with the same nightmare as Lord Falconer of Thoroton is introducing his damaging and dangerous legislation; this time with the Prime Minister’s full support.
State Sanctioned Murder
By Voice for Justice UK (“VfJUK”)
Next Friday, on 26th July, former Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice, Lord Falconer of Thoroton, is set to introduce (yet again) his Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults Bill in the House of Lords. This will be his fifth attempt to introduce this pernicious and damaging legislation, supposedly giving the terminally ill the right to choose the time and manner of their death. But this time it is different because this time the Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer, has pledged his full support to its being passed.
Let us make no mistake, a vote for assisted dying is a vote for euthanasia because the two are indissolubly joined in unholy matrimony, as demonstrated in all the jurisdictions where it has so far been passed. In the Netherlands, for example, where physician-assisted suicide and euthanasia was legalised in 2001, the number of reported euthanasia cases jumped from 1,882 in 2002 to 9,068 in 2023, representing 5.4% of total deaths – or one in twenty – with 20% of those cases listed as having been for “psychological reasons.”
In 2023, the Netherlands further broadened its rules for euthanasia to include children aged one to twelve, who had been “diagnosed” as suffering unbearably and with no hope of improvement. Note, there was no pretence of any requirement for terminal illness or imminent expectation of death – all that was needed was assessment by a third party of “unbearable suffering.”
In a recent report entitled Abuse in End of Life Care, carried out by the Lords and Commons Family and Child Protection Group and published by VfJUK, it was found that distressingly high numbers of vulnerable and/or elderly patients admitted to hospital in the UK were already, as part of their so-called care package, having ‘treatment’ withdrawn – which included for these purposes food and hydration – and being prescribed instead drugs such as midazolam and morphine, administered with the purpose of rendering them unconscious, while hastening death. In other words, vulnerable patients in the UK and admitted under the NHS are already being subjected to backdoor euthanasia. If all restraints should now be removed, with the legalisation of assisted dying, how can the rights of those who want to live, and die naturally, possibly be preserved?
The short answer is, they can’t.
From the reports of all jurisdictions where assisted dying and euthanasia have been legalised, we know that, despite all supposed safeguards, the rates are inappropriately soaring – and that assisted dying/euthanasia, is even, on occasion, being offered by insurance companies as an alternative to expensive treatments the companies don’t want to fund.
If this damaging and dangerous Bill should now be passed and become law for the UK, we will be opening the door to incredible abuse and leaving people of all ages terrified of going into hospital.
