{"id":322395,"date":"2024-11-28T11:20:25","date_gmt":"2024-11-28T17:20:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=322395"},"modified":"2025-01-02T14:07:51","modified_gmt":"2025-01-02T20:07:51","slug":"uk-parliament-vote-assisted-suicide-bill-safeguards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/uk-parliament-vote-assisted-suicide-bill-safeguards\/","title":{"rendered":"UK Parliament members vote in favor of assisted suicide bill"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>

UPDATE, 12\/4\/2024<\/strong>: The United Kingdom’s Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill passed its first round of votes in Parliament, in what’s been called ‘a historic step<\/a>‘ towards allowing adults, who are given six months or less to live, the right to assisted suicide.<\/p>\n

After five hours of heated debate, 330 Members of Parliament voted in support of the bill with 274 voting against it. Similar legislation had failed to pass in 2015. Now, the bill will face heavy scrutiny over the next several months as MPs review over 200 proposed amendments, with some saying they would rescind their support if certain amendments are not included in the bill. After the amendments are voted on, the bill will need the approval<\/a> of both Houses of Parliament before it can become law.<\/p>\n

11\/28\/2024<\/strong>: The Parliament in the United Kingdom plans to hold a vote just days from now, on November 29, regarding a controversial ‘right to assisted suicide” bill. Although many in the UK have <\/span>voiced their opposition to the bill<\/span><\/a>, and concern<\/span> for the vulnerable people that would be affected by it, others push forward, potentially unaware or apathetic to the ethical atrocities that likely lay ahead if assisted suicide is legalized.<\/span><\/p>\n

When a similar UK bill was brought to light in 2021, Lady Meacher, the bill\u2019s creator, commented on the National Secular Society podcast, saying, \u201cThere\u2019s so many safeguards\u2026 you can overdo it and make the thing pretty unusable.\u201d Philosopher and author AC Grayling, an avid supporter of assisted suicide, cited “compassion” as he discussed his support on the podcast. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026 Why not [allow assisted suicide] for somebody who simply cannot come to terms with being wheelchair-bound, let us say?” Grayling asked. “Or who is clinically depressed and is <\/span>never going to be independent of medications for the rest of their lives?<\/span><\/a>\u201d Grayling is in favor of MAiD (“medical assistance in dying”) for any and all who ask for it, with no restrictions. He argued on the podcast that it is traumatic when “tens of thousands” of people commit suicide every year, but suggested that’s “because it’s not done in a clean quite helpful, sympathetic way[.]”<\/span><\/p>\n

In reality, as Wesley J. Smith noted<\/a> at National Review, “Normalizing suicide as an answer to suffering caused by illness,\u00a0studies have shown<\/a>, normalizes and increases suicides more generally.”<\/p>\n

As Live Action News reported<\/a> in October, assisted suicide is currently “illegal under the Suicide Act (1961), which makes it unlawful to ‘encourage or assist someone to commit suicide.’ The penalty for violating the law carries up to 14 years in prison.” And despite the fact that the bill hasn’t even been brought for a vote yet, “pro-death groups are already\u00a0suggesting the broadening of the criteria<\/a> on who should qualify.”<\/p>\n

READ: Welsh Assembly holds \u2018historic\u2019 vote opposing assisted suicide as UK Parliament considers bill<\/em><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Labour MP Kim Leadbeater’s bill, dubbed \u201cThe Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life)\u201d Bill, <\/span>grants eligibility for assisted suicide<\/span><\/a> to those who have lived in England or Wales for at least the past 12 months; those who are currently registered with a GP and have been for at least 12 months; those who have been diagnosed as terminally ill and are also \u201cexpected to die within 6 months\u201d; and lastly, those who are deemed mentally fit for making their wishes known and are not being coerced into medicalized suicide.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Following this, there is at least a three-week waiting period from the start of the application process to allow time for required public statements from the applicant, for multiple practitioner approvals, and for a judge’s ruling in approval of the decision. (These are the safeguards Lady Meacher found to be \u201coverdone.\u201d) Currently, mental illness alone is not enough to make someone eligible to be killed in the UK. However, other countries \u2014 like Canada \u2014 are an indication that safeguards are quickly eroded<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Yet, in a rare moment of sanity in the nation, a Canadian judge stopped a woman with bipolar disorder who attempted to acquire access to MAiD through a different doctor in a different province. <\/span>\u201cIn this case, (the woman) is actively pursuing death, <\/span>over the objections of the physicians who actively treat her<\/span><\/a>.<\/span> She has come to B.C. because she was able to find someone in B.C. who would approve,\u201d the documents said. They later noted that her condition \u201cis treatable but (the woman) has not followed treatment recommendations.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, some UK doctors have strong objections<\/a> to the six-months-to-live \u201cline in the sand\u201d in the Leadbeater bill. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen someone has only a few days, or certainly only a few hours left to live, it can be easier to understand with a higher degree of certainty that they\u2019re likely to die within that time-frame. But when we\u2019re getting into the territory of months, it is very, very difficult\u2026\u201d said Professor Katherine Sleeman. <\/span><\/p>\n

Professor Chris Parker, recalling some of his own patients, noted, \u201cI have little doubt that some patients would choose assisted suicide if it was legal, because they were told they had less than six months to live, but in truth, if they had not had assisted suicide, would have lived for years and enjoyed a good quality of life, because I\u2019ve seen patients like that.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Call on President Trump to pardon the FACE Act prisoners on his first day in office.<\/i><\/b><\/i><\/b><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

UPDATE, 12\/4\/2024: The United Kingdom’s Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill passed its first round of votes in Parliament, in what’s been called ‘a historic step‘ towards allowing adults, who are given six months or less to live, the right to assisted suicide. After five hours of heated debate, 330 Members of Parliament voted […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":670,"featured_media":192299,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false},"categories":[5,4,3473],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nUK Parliament members vote in favor of assisted suicide bill<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Parliament will now discuss amendments to the assisted suicide bill before a final vote. 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