by Tim Farron, Christian Today
Last week, Scotland’s assisted dying bill was narrowly defeated by MSPs, by 69 votes to 57.
This was a significant shift in the mood at Holyrood. It was unexpected, but came about as a result of proper scrutiny of this issue. The professional bodies raised significant concerns around issues of coercion, inadequate palliative care, oversight for doctors making the decisions and protection for those with ethical objections to participating. These concerns played a key role in the outcome of the debate.
Similar fears are dominating the passage of Kim Leadbeater’s terminally ill adults bill in the Westminster Parliament. The bill is currently deep in its House of Lords committee and seems likely to run out of time. If it does not complete all its stages by the time Parliament prorogues ahead of the King’s Speech in May, it will fall altogether.
Peers have been accused by some supporters of trying to ‘sabotage’ the bill by tabling more than 1,200 amendments. But the Lords were expected to scrutinise the bill and they have been doing exactly that. Many MPs voted for it at third reading on the understanding that the lack of deep scrutiny in the Commons would then happen in the Lords.
By convention, the Lords does bow to the will of the elected Chamber. But this bill was in no-one’s manifesto so there was no democratic obligation for the Lords to nod it through.
And the repeated assertion that the bill is only opposed by ‘religious people’ following the demands of their Chief Whip in the sky or the Pope in the Vatican does not hold water.