Assisted dying bill presented to the Commons
By Katy Balls, Spectator:
The debate over assisted dying made it to the House of Commons this afternoon. Kim Leadbeater, the backbench Labour MP, introduced a private members’ bill on the subject in the Chamber. Leadbeater wants to change the law so that terminally ill patients can be helped to end their lives if a judge and two doctors agree. The last time MPs considered the issue was in 2015, when the House rejected the idea with 330 MPs against and 118 for.
However, this House of Commons looks rather different and MPs believe the bill has a good chance of passing. While Labour ministers have been told not to get involved in the debate either way, the Prime Minister’s views on the topic are well-known. He has spoken in the past about his diasbled mother’s end-of-life struggles. In 2015, Starmer voted to legalise terminally ill people ending their own life. Ahead of this summer’s election, Starmer promised to give MPs a free vote on assisted dying laws. Yet the speed at which this is progressing has taken some of his ministers by surprise.
Within Starmer’s cabinet there are sceptics. The Justice Secretary previously told me on an episode of The Spectator’s Women with Balls podcast that she would vote against any such proposal: ‘I know some of the MPs who vocally support this issue think, “For God’s sake, we’re not a nation of granny killers, what’s wrong with you”… I feel that once you cross that line, you’ve crossed it forever. If it just becomes the norm that at a certain age or with certain diseases, you are now a bit of a burden… that’s a really dangerous position to be in.’
Today is just the beginning. The real test of parliamentary opinion will come next month when the bill gets its second reading. That will involve an MPs’ vote – and if that passes, the bill will then reach the committee stage, where MPs can table amendments. This could see some MPs try to expand the terms of the current proposals.
In the meantime, the new issue of The Spectator – out tomorrow – carries a taste of what’s to come in the form of a debate on the subject between Charles Moore and Charlie Falconer.
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