Assisted dying in England and Wales has moved a step closer after proposed legislation passed the second reading stage in the House of Lords. Peers allowed Kim Leadbeater’s landmark bill to proceed to its next crucial stage after a second day of debate lasting for five hours on Friday. The House passed an amendment which will see a special committee set up for further scrutiny.
Negotiations between the bill’s supporters and opponents led to an agreement that the committee will conclude its work by November 7, which should allow enough time for the bill to proceed to a Committee of the Whole House and complete its remaining stages within this parliamentary session.
Speaking on behalf of campaigners, Sarah Wootton, chief executive of Dignity in Dying, said every stage the bill clears “brings us closer to the safe and compassionate assisted dying law that people across the country are calling for”.
She added: “This reform has won the support of the public, MPs and now Peers, moving it decisively closer to becoming law.
“Over two days, we have seen Peers engage in serious, thoughtful debate that has shifted firmly into the practicalities of implementation — a sure sign that Parliament is ready to deliver this change.
“The vote to gather further evidence shows the seriousness with which Peers are approaching scrutiny, and their commitment to crafting the strongest possible law for this country.”
Opening the second day of debate, Labour peer Baroness Thornton said argued against opponents including former Prime Minister Theresa May who had described the bill as “a suicide bill”.
She said: “It is not our job to kill this bill. I was saddened last week by the noble Lady Baroness (Theresa) May speaking about this being a ‘suicide Bill’.
“People have written to me in the last week, very distressed, and they say, ‘we are not suicidal, we want to live, but we are dying, and we do not have the choice or ability to change that’. Assisted dying is not suicide.”
Her comments came after the Express published an open letter from 29 campaigners who slammed the “offensive” and “inaccurate” use of the word “suicide”.
The debate heard impassioned arguments from speakers on both sides, including former Archbishop of Canterbury Lord George Carey.
Outlining his support, he told the House safeguards in the legislation would “without question will resist abuse”.
Addressing the Bishops’ benches, he added: “Do we really want to stand in the way of this Bill? It will pass, whether in this session or the next. It has commanding support from the British public and passed the elected House after an unprecedented period of scrutiny.
“Both this House and the Church are in the midst of renewed public debate as to our role in society. And I pray, indeed pray, that both these institutions, which I hold so dearly for the importance of our role in public life, do not risk our legitimacy by claiming that we know better than both the public and the other place (the Commons).”
Opposing the law change, Lord Kevin Shinkwin warned that peers risked opening Pandora’s Box. He described himself as being “severely disabled” after suffering a series of mini-strokes which at one point meant he was told he had six months to live if he did not undergo surgery.
Echoing Baroness May’s speech last week, he said the bill “gives the state the licence to kill the wrong type of people”.
He added: “My Lords, I am the ‘wrong type’. I face the realistic possibility as a severely disabled person of being killed as a result of legislation passed by this House.”
Former Brexit negotiator David Frost warned that the legislation was “legally and practically defective in many ways”, saying he was “against it for philosophical and religious reasons”.
Lord Frost said: “For the first time ever, this Bill seeks to give a person of sound will and mind the right to act contrary to a fundamental element of the ethical tradition that’s been fundamental to this country.”
The Conservative peer warned that approving the draft new law would “dismantle part of that inherited ethical system” in the UK, adding: “Once you’ve introduced utilitarianism into our society’s decisions, where do you stop?”
Closing the debate, the bill’s sponsor Lord Charlie Falconer urged colleagues to give MPs the final decision. The Labour peer told the upper chamber there was “a job of work to do” to improve the bill and listen to evidence gathered by the special committee.
He said: “Then we must do what we do so well, which is scrutinise and amend the Bill as necessary, and then send it back to the other place for a decision.
“I have heard people say, ‘Oh well, we can say no to this Bill’. Ultimately, on an issue such as this, in our system, somebody has got to decide, and it’s not the electorate because it’s never in anybody’s manifesto, with the exception of the Greens.
“Therefore Parliament has got to decide, and ultimately, in our system, that means it will have to be those who are elected, not those who are unelected, who make that decision.”
The bill is backed by the Daily Express Give Us Our Last Rights crusade.
