Pro-Life arguments CAN win - and this has just been proven in Great Britain. The assisted suicide Bill has been widely pronounced as dead by commentators after it was revealed that it will “almost certainly” run out of time in the House of Lords and will not become law. This conclusion comes after the Government Chief Whip in the Lords confirmed that the Government will not be committing any further time to the Bill.
Private Members’ Bills, like the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, are only debated on Fridays, and despite seven additional sitting Fridays being granted for the Bill before Christmas on top of the seven which had already been scheduled, even the team behind the Bill now expect it to fail.
Assisted suicide campaigners have repeatedly claimed that just seven Peers have been blocking the Bill by tabling lots of amendments, but this spin from assisted suicide campaigners paints a deeply misleading picture of the actual situation in the House of Lords.
Nearly 80 Peers have so far tabled or signed amendments highlighting concerns with the Bill and 131 Peers have either spoken against the Bill or signed amendments raising such concerns during its passage through the Lords.
This is significant because Bill supporters are seemingly attempting to persuade MPs to revive the Bill in the next parliamentary session and force it through using the Parliament Acts, on the basis that a small number of Peers have inappropriately blocked its passage. Our analysis shows this claim to be wholly untrue.
131 is an exceptionally high number of Peers opposing a Bill, particularly one where debates are reserved for Fridays when Peers are often not expected to be in Parliament. It is even more remarkable given that the Bill has not yet completed Committee Stage or reached its Report Stage or Third Reading. In addition to these 131 Peers, it is likely that more Peers will speak out during future sittings and it is known that many more Peers are opposed to the Bill. Others have already spoken out in the media or expressed concerns via written parliamentary questions.
Contrary to the misleading claims of Bill supporters, the number of Peers opposing the Bill by speaking against it or signing amendments raising concerns is therefore among the highest number ever recorded for a Bill in the House of Lords, even before the Bill has completed its Committee Stage.
Those Peers who have spoken against the Bill or signed amendments include Peers appointed to the House of Lords because of their expertise in relevant areas, including a former President of the Royal College of Psychiatrists and President of the British Medical Association, the former Chief Executive of NHS England, a leading Professor of palliative medicine, Peers living with disabilities, and legal experts, including a former Attorney General and the former President of the Family Division of the High Court.
This large number of Peers have been subjecting the assisted suicide Bill to extensive scrutiny due to what opponents of the Bill have said are dangerous flaws and a lack of adequate safeguards within the Bill.