Despite a deeply divided Cabinet, a vote on making assisted suicide legal may very well be held before Christmas because the Prime Minister backs plans to fast-track the laws, according to The Mail on Sunday.
While those at the tip of their lives currently have the identical legal protections as everyone else against assisted suicide, The Mail on Sunday has revealed that a “divisive vote” on legalising assisted suicide “may very well be held inside weeks”. If a Bill on the problem became law, this may usher in certainly one of the best social changes because the Abortion Act in 1967.
A source within the Labour Party told the paper, “The wheels are turning. It has been made clear to the MPs at the highest of the ballot that the PM backs a change within the law.”
While newly elected Labour MP Jake Richards has already made clear his intention to introduce a bill to make assisted suicide legal after he got here eleventh within the Private Members’ Bill Ballot earlier this month, Keir Starmer is reportedly engaged in accelerating the method.
Since Richards is simply too low within the ballot to ensure time for a debate, Labour MPs higher up are being encouraged to take the proposal forward. The Mail on Sunday reports that, last Friday night, one Labour MP on the ballot admitted to being offered two additional staff to help him in drafting a bill if he proposed legalising assisted suicide.
Opposition to assisted suicide inside the Labour Cabinet
However, the Prime Minister’s own Cabinet stays deeply divided on the problem. Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood has said, “I do not intend to support it.”
“I do know some MPs who support this issue think, ‘For God’s sake, we’re not a nation of granny killers, what’s unsuitable with you’… [But] when you cross that line, you’ve got crossed it eternally. If it becomes the norm that at a certain age or with certain diseases, you at the moment are a little bit of a burden… that is a extremely dangerous position.”
Health Secretary Wes Streeting has also expressed serious reservations in regards to the idea, declaring himself “conflicted” on assisted suicide.
The Health Secretary discussed the importance of constructing sure “people aren’t coerced into exercising their right to die” due to an absence of support in end-of-life care.
“Candidly, after I take into consideration this query of being a burden, I don’t think that palliative care, end-of-life care on this country is in a condition yet where we’re giving people the liberty to decide on, without being coerced by the dearth of support available”, he added.
A Government spokesperson said, “Successive governments have taken the view that any change to the law on this sensitive area is a matter for Parliament. This Government won’t stand in the best way of any debate and votes.”
The most up-to-date substantial try and legalise assisted suicide within the House of Commons was in 2015 when former backbench Labour MP Rob Marris introduced the Assisted Dying (No. 2) Bill as a Private Members’ Bill. This attempt was soundly defeated on the Bill’s second reading by 330 votes to 118. Starmer was certainly one of the 118 MPs who voted in favour of assisted suicide at the moment.
Since 2015, several other Private Members’ Bills have been introduced to Parliament with none of them progressing past Second Reading.
Lord Falconer, who has failed to vary the law on assisted suicide on six previous occasions since 2009, has introduced one other assisted suicide Bill, which awaits Second Reading within the House of Lords.
Biased Citizens’ Jury
These latest developments come similtaneously an extreme ‘Citizens’ Jury’ on assisted suicide found more participants supported the inclusion of kid euthanasia than opposed it. It has been revealed that the Citizens’ Jury was funded by a serious donor to the assisted suicide lobby and commissioned by a research body whose director used to move up a pro-assisted suicide pressure group.
The results of the Citizens’ Jury, organised by the Nuffield Council on Bioethics, allegedly showed “broad support for a change within the law in England” on assisted suicide. However, it has since been revealed that the ‘jurors’ appear to have been a highly partisan number of individuals who took extreme positions on the problem of assisted suicide and euthanasia that should not widely supported by the general public.
Spokesperson for Right To Life UK, Catherine Robinson, said “Making assisted suicide legal, including the clear threat it poses to individuals with disabilities and people who find themselves otherwise vulnerable, is a really dangerous idea. As the Prime Minister’s own Cabinet realises, within the context of a struggling healthcare system, the notion that assisted suicide can be freely chosen fairly than a results of coercion can’t be taken seriously.Â
“Evidence from Canada and Oregon clearly show that, for many individuals who end their lives by assisted suicide (or euthanasia within the case of Canada), concerns about being a burden are very real. We can be naive to think, in our highly atomised society, that such trends wouldn’t be operative in our own country too.”
