Lord Falconer's Assisted Dying Bill (1) (2) reached Committee Stage in the House of Lords on Friday 7 November. It seeks to legalise assisted suicide (but not euthanasia) for mentally competent adults (aged over 18) with less than six months to live, subject to 'safeguards' under a two doctors' signature model similar to the Abortion Act 1967.
Opponents to the bill opted to strangle it slowly in committee rather than voting it out at second reading and so the whole House of Lords is now debating the bill line by line and considering 175 proposed amendments. (3) Only four of 40 groups of amendments were formally considered on the first day of committee (7 November) (4) so there is still a long way to go and the bill is fast running out of parliamentary time.
It may not even reach the third reading stage necessary for it to clear the House of Lords and, even if it does, those on both sides agree that there is no time for it to go through the House of Commons as well before the general election on 7 May 2015. This means almost inevitably that the bill will fall and that Lord Falconer will have to start all over again next summer.
The debate now however is still very important as it will form part of the parliamentary record and will influence future discussions. So it is still essential that those opposed to the bill still write to peers urging them to reject it fully at third reading, if it should come to a vote. (5)
One development on 7 November was the 'acceptance' of an amendment by Lord Pannick that judges, not doctors, should take final decisions about whether someone should be given the go-ahead to take their own life. This amendment puts a fearsome onus on judges but also demonstrates one of the weaknesses of the bill, that its so-called 'safeguards' are not safe.
A fuller analysis of the bill and a paper giving warnings from Oregon where similar legislation was passed are both available on the Care Not Killing website. (6)
A similar bill to Falconer's, originally introduced into the Scottish Parliament by the late Margo MacDonald MSP but now sponsored by Patrick Harvie MSP, will be debated in Holyrood in March 2015 after oral evidence has been taken in February.
Harvie's bill is proposing to legalise assisted suicide using trained 'licensed facilitators' for mentally competent adults (aged over 16) with a 'terminal or life-shortening illness' or a 'progressive and terminal or lifeshortening condition' who have concluded that the 'quality of their life is unacceptable'.
The bill has more holes than Falconer's including relativistic definitions, poor reporting provisions, minimal penalties, a 'saving' clause protecting doctors acting in 'good faith', no specification of 'means' of suicide and the absence of a conscience clause.
Unlike Falconer's bill, its progress will not be halted by the general election. But it is even more dangerous, if that was possible, and needs to be defeated at the time of the first debate.
A new ComRes poll (7) has shown that a clear majority of the public say there is no safe system of assisted suicide. More than four in ten believe assisted suicide will be extended beyond the terminally ill if the current law is changed.
The voice of the medical profession, and especially that of Christian doctors, will be crucial at 'such a time as this'. (8) We must not be silent.
