Welsh Senedd members urged to reject assisted suicide bill

Members of the Welsh Senedd will on Tuesday resolve whether to present their consent to Kim Leadbeater MP’s assisted suicide bill.

The House of Lords is currently debating the controversial Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, passed by the Commons last yr.

The bill is facing considerable opposition within the Lords but when passed would legalise assisted suicide across England and Wales for terminally unwell adults with lower than six months left to live. 

As health and social care are devolved matters, the UK Parliament normally seeks the Senedd’s consent before any bills affecting these areas can apply in Wales. It is incredibly rare for the Senedd to refuse to present its consent and doing so would stoke tensions with Westminster. 

Christian advocacy group, CARE, is urging Senedd members to reject what it calls an “irredeemably flawed” bill. 

CARE CEO, Ross Hendry, who’s Welsh, said the bill had been “exposed, at times brutally so, within the House of Lords especially, as being riddled with problems”.

“Legalising assisted suicide in Wales would open a Pandora’s box and would put enormous pressure on essentially the most vulnerable,” he said. 

“The Westminster Bill is an try to pass assisted suicide in Wales through the back door yet the Welsh people have given no such mandate and it wasn’t that way back that the Senedd actively voted against assisted suicide in a non-binding vote. 

“By rejecting this motion, the Welsh Parliament would send a strong signal to essentially the most vulnerable in communities across the country, from Cardiff, to Aberystwyth, to Llandudno.

“Thanks to the facility of palliative care, a superb, pain-free death is feasible without the moral problems and complications that may inevitably arise from legalising assisted suicide.”