An assisted suicide Bill received a First Reading in the House of Lords this morning as sponsor Lord Falconer attempts to introduce legislation to change the law on assisted suicide for the seventh time.
Lord Falconer of Thoroton’s Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults Bill was drawn second in the House of Lords ballot last week, giving him another chance to legalise assisted suicide despite his numerous previous failures.
While the Bill’s details have not yet been released, it is likely to be similar to one of Lord Falconer’s previous assisted suicide bills.
Private Members’ Bills rarely become law and are even less likely to become law when they have started in the House of Lords, as Lord Falconer’s Bill has. They are, however, an opportunity to raise the profile of a particular issue and can therefore indirectly influence Government-backed legislation.
Falconer’s six failed attempts to change the law on assisted suicide
Lord Falconer first tried to change the law on assisted suicide in 2009 by amending the Coroners and Justice Bill. The amendment intended that someone who assists another in travelling to a jurisdiction in which assisted suicide is legal is not “treated as capable of encouraging or assisting the suicide or attempted suicide of another adult”. The legislation was rejected by 194 to 141 votes in the same year.
His second attempt to change the law took the form of his Assisted Dying Bill in 2013. If successful, the Bill would have made it legal for a medical professional to provide a lethal drug to an adult expected to have fewer than six months to live, who would then take the lethal drug in the presence of the medical professional.
In 2014, he tried to change the law a third time by reintroducing his 2013 Private Members’ Bill. Like its predecessor, the Bill failed to make sufficient progress before running out of time.
Lord Falconer made his fourth attempt to amend the law in 2015 when he tabled another Bill after the General Election. In 2015, the then MP Rob Marris introduced a bill to the House of Commons drawn up by Lord Falconer which was subsequently heavily defeated in the Commons by 330 to 118.
In 2019, Lord Falconer attempted to change the law on assisted suicide for the fifth time by introducing yet another assisted suicide bill. This Bill was also unsuccessful and failed to receive a Second Reading.
In 2022, Lord Falconer, made his sixth attempt, along with three other Peers, with an amendment to the Health and Care Bill in the House of Lords which would have forced the Government to introduce legislation on assisted suicide within a year of the Health and Care Bill becoming law. The amendment was defeated by 179 votes to 145. Peers from across the House of Lords objected to the Bill on both constitutional and substantive grounds.
What will Falconer’s assisted suicide Bill do?
Based on his prior attempts and the Bill’s title, his latest effort likely aims to legalise assisted suicide for those who are said to be “terminally ill”. One of his previous bills defined terminal illness as a “progressive condition which cannot be reversed”, meaning the person is “reasonably expected to die within six months”.
Legislation in Canada as enacted in 2016 had a requirement that the death of the person requesting assisted suicide or euthanasia be “reasonably foreseeable”. In March 2021, however, the Canadian Government amended the MAiD law to remove the requirement that death be “reasonably foreseeable” after a successful legal challenge (to allow for assisted suicide in cases of non-terminal illness) in the Superior Court of Québec in 2019.
Spokesperson for Right To Life UK, Catherine Robinson, said “Lord Falconer’s assisted suicide bill will be his seventh parliamentary attempt to change the law on assisted suicide since 2009. That’s almost once every two years for the past 15 years”.
“Both Houses of Parliament have consistently rejected his proposed changes to assisted suicide legislation. Examples of assisted suicide in action in other jurisdictions should continue to function as a dire warning to our elected representatives who should continue to reject Lord Falconer’s proposals”.
“One of the most shocking findings from assisted suicide data in Oregon is that the end-of-life concerns of those who end their lives by assisted suicide are generally not medical. Autonomy, dignity and activities that make life enjoyable are all issues that are not treated by death. Sadly, nearly half of those who choose an assisted death report concerns about being a burden on family and friends. We would be naive to think these same issues would not manifest in England and Wales. The focus must be on palliative care and not on helping vulnerable adults to end their lives”.
