by Tim Dieppe, Christian Concern
This week’s debates in the committee scrutinising Kim Leadbeater’s Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill demonstrated just how big an impact on society this bill will have.
This follows last week, when the requirement for a High Court Judge to sign off on requests for assisted suicide was replaced with ‘death panels’ from which there is no appeal if death is granted.
And once again, the bill’s supporters blocked even more efforts to make the bill safer.
Hospices must facilitate assisted suicide
Rachell Maskell MP proposed an amendment which would allow hospices to opt out of facilitating assisted suicide.
Danny Kruger MP argued that hospice owners should be able to make their hospice “a safe space in which there will not be state-assisted suicide.” He suggested that many residents would want this kind of assurance from a hospice.
Concerns were also raised about people leaving the hospice sector if they are forced to facilitate assisted suicide. There were also suggestions that public funding could be at risk if a hospice refuses to facilitate assisted suicide.
Nevertheless, the amendment was rejected by the committee.
Professor Katherine Sleeman tweeted in response that she had spoken to a consultant at a large hospice who had told her that the whole consultant body of the hospice has decided to leave en masse if that hospice ‘opts in’ to providing assisted suicide. She described the lack of opt out for hospices as “a disaster.”