Disappointment after Welsh Senedd members back assisted suicide bill

The Welsh Senedd’s vote in support of Westminster assisted suicide laws has been met with disappointment. 

Senedd members last night voted narrowly in favour of a Legislative Consent Motion on Kim Leadbeater’s Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill currently being scrutinised within the House of Lords.

The vote within the Senedd was carried 28 in favour, with 23 against. It implies that should the Leadbeater bill eventually pass in Westminster, assisted suicide will probably be available on the Welsh NHS in the long run.

Care Not Killing (CNK), a broad coalition of opponents to assisted suicide that features doctors, palliative care specialists and disability advocates, said it was disillusioned that the Senedd had chosen to back the “dangerous” consent motion.

CNK CEO Dr Gordon Macdonald said, “Changing the law to legalise either assisted suicide or euthanasia within the UK would place huge pressure, real or perceived, on terminally unwell, disabled people and people suffering conditions comparable to clinical depression or having suicidal thoughts to finish their lives prematurely, exactly as we see within the handful of places which have legalised assisted suicide or euthanasia.” 

He pointed to evidence from the US state of Oregon, where assisted suicide is legal and research has shown that a majority of those that select it accomplish that for fear of being a burden on family members.

Dr Macdonald raised further concerns that the laws as currently drafted would permit assisted suicide for conditions like eating disorders and insulin-dependent diabetes. 

He continued: “We must take care of people who find themselves suffering, not encourage them or provide them with a mechanism to finish their lives. This is why we champion the extension of high-quality palliative care to all those that need it and higher support for his or her families. This is the true progressive agenda, and why we argue for care not killing.”

A majority of MPs within the House of Commons voted in support of Leadbeater’s bill last June however the laws should be approved by the House of Lords before it might probably progress further. 

It has faced intense scrutiny within the House of Lords, where a major variety of peers have spoken against the bill. The large volume of changes proposed by peers has given rise to suggestions that it could run out of time on this parliamentary session. 

Ross Hendry, chief executive of Christian advocacy group CARE, said he was disillusioned by Tuesday night’s vote, calling the Leadbeater bill “irredeemably flawed”. 

“It was not that way back that the Senedd decisively voted against assisted suicide in principle,” he said.

“The Westminster assisted suicide Bill imposes assisted suicide on Wales, despite there being no mandate to accomplish that from the people of Wales.”

Mr Hendry, who’s Welsh, said that with current “gaps” in the supply of palliative care, social care and disability support in Wales, it was inevitable that folks would “feel pressure to finish their lives”.

“People across Wales would feel compelled to die out of desperation, whilst unable to access support. ‘Assisted dying’ can be disastrous for essentially the most vulnerable in our communities,” he continued. 

“The Westminster Bill don’t seek to forestall this consequence – nor could it. ‘Safeguards’ wouldn’t mitigate this pervasive threat. There are many compelling arguments against assisted suicide.”