Details of the debate and speakers on the Assisted Suicide Bill
The debate itself is hopefully something of a model for how this is now taken forward in a debate where it is often very easy to cast opponents as beyond the pail. Indeed, even the C of E is very divided about this, though perhaps less so in the hierarchy but at a local level members of church community and even church families can differ markedly without falling out. It will be interesting to see how Christian groups continue to campaign around this issue throughout the many months of Parliamentary work ahead.
The Christian Institute was probably the quickest out of the blocks with a disappointed statement which declared: “We urge Christians to keep on praying and to be ready to approach their MPs again over the coming months. This is a life and death issue. Now is not the time to give up.”
MPs who spoke in the debate were persuasive with Danny Kruger leading the charge against the bill and warning against coercion. He called for better palliative care. Diane Abbott, Mother of the House, said the safeguards were not sufficient. Tim Farron said, “To legalise assisted dying is to create the space for coercion that will undoubtedly see people die who would not have chosen to do so. There are no safeguards in this bill that will prevent this.” In Tim Farron’s regular column, he will no doubt return to this issue next week.
Conservative MP Neil Shastri-Hurst, a former surgeon, said he had failed patients, by not being able to give them “the death they deserve”.
From the Church of England Newspaper Newsletter
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