Labour MP Kim Leadbeater has come first in the Private Members’ Bill ballot and has decided to table a Bill to legalise assisted suicide.
This follows news reports that the Prime Minister was “paving the way” for a parliamentary vote before Christmas on legalising assisted suicide. The reports suggested that a Bill on the subject was set to be “rushed into law” and that MPs who were successful in the ‘Private Members’ Bill’ ballot in the House of Commons were being urged to bring forward legislation on this controversial issue.
It now appears that Kim Leadbeater decided to give in to the demands of assisted suicide pressure groups and the Prime Minister, and table a Bill to legalise assisted suicide.
As was suggested in reports, this Bill will indeed be voted on before Christmas – with MPs expected to vote on it at Second Reading on 29 November 2024.
The introduction of the Bill comes at a time when many elderly people are heading into winter with their Winter Fuel Payment cut by the Government. Palliative care services are in crisis with over 100,000 people dying each year without receiving the palliative care they desperately need. Our wider healthcare system is in a state of crisis, with Labour’s own Health Secretary describing the NHS as “broken”.
Within this context, this proposed assisted suicide law is a disaster waiting to happen.
This Bill is the most serious threat to vulnerable lives since the Abortion Act was introduced in 1967.
A Private Members’ Bill was the same mechanism used in Parliament to legalise abortion in 1967 and it appears Keir Starmer wishes to use a similar tactic to implement his personal desire for assisted suicide also to become legal.
It’s now crucial that all MPs and the Government urgently see that there is a large number of voters in each constituency who don’t want this dangerous and extreme change to our laws – changes that would put the vulnerable at risk and see the ending of many lives through assisted suicide.
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