The effort to force state-sanctioned murder into UK law is facing serious resistance in the House of Lords. An unprecedented number of changes for a Private Member’s Bill have been tabled by Peers seeking to amend Kim Leadbeater’s seriously flawed assisted suicide Bill.
Supporters of the Bill criticised the interventions as a delaying tactic. Its critics, however, insist the amendments are necessary given the unworkability of the Bill and that the Bill has not undergone “due diligence and proper pre-legislative scrutiny”. Only four days have currently been scheduled for the Committee of the Whole House to consider the more than 950 amendments put forward so far. On the first day, just seven were debated.
Over the last few weeks, a special Select Committee heard evidence from experts about the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill. During the hearings, key witnesses exposed gaps, flaws and weaknesses in the backbench MP’s plans. There are usually no votes in the House of Lords at Committee Stage.
Peers including Labour’s Lord Rook criticised the Bill for inadequate processes to measure capacity, with Lord Shinkwin echoing the concerns. He urged his colleagues to heed warnings from the Royal College of Psychiatrists about its doubts over using the Mental Capacity Act in assessing capacity of a patient to kill themselves.
Crossbench Peer Baroness Finlay raised a concern that the coordinating doctors approving people for an assisted suicide are not required to be specialists in the patient’s disease or condition – they “could be anyone”.
Peers spoke on an amendment to remove Wales from the scope of the Bill, with Lord Blencathra objecting to “English Law”, being imposed on Wales.
He said “it cannot be right” that politicians in Wales could be handed a Bill that will impact the 35,000 people who die there each year, “and they have no say over how their constituents die”.
Similarly, Lord Harper said he was “uncomfortable” with the Bill introducing assisted suicide in Wales, when the Senedd voted against it last year.
