Proposals to delay the introduction of assisted suicide in England and Wales has given opponents fresh hope that plans to legalise the practice will be abandoned altogether.
Labour MP Kim Leadbeater, who introduced the bill, has proposed delaying the introduction of assisted suicide in England and Wales until 2029, giving rise to hopes that the plans will be ditched under a new government.
It comes as a former Conservative MP called on Parliament to reject the bill, calling it “unsafe”.
The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill is currently at the committee stage, having passed second reading last year.
Critics of the bill fear that legalising medical suicide would lead to pressure being placed on the disabled, the elderly and the vulnerable to end their lives, either by family members or even by the NHS itself.
In November the bill passed second reading after many MPs were assured by the apparent safeguard of a High Court judge needing to give approval to any decision to end one’s life by assisted suicide. Now, however, what was for many MPs a key safeguard has been watered down to merely a “panel of experts”.
Caroline Ansell, who was the MP for Eastbourne and is now Director of Advocacy and Policy at the charity CARE, said of the bill, “That more than five hundred amendments were tabled to change the bill shows how unsafe it was – it still is. Over the last weeks, amendments carefully designed to give protections to vulnerable groups have been systemically voted down by Bill supporters on the committee.”
Ansell also raised concerns about hospices potentially having funding withdrawn should they refuse to provide assisted suicide and about companies arising that would kill for profit.
Ansell added, “Many MPs voted for the Bill last year in the understanding that it could be improved and made safe through scrutiny down the line. This has not happened. Instead, scrutiny has been biased and rushed. This is no way to legislate on any issue, let alone an issue of life and death. The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill is riddled with problems. Wherever MPs stand on the principle behind it, they should reject it at Third Reading.”
