In a major upset and setback for the assisted suicide lobby, the Welsh Parliament (Senedd) has voted decisively to reject a motion calling for Westminster to introduce assisted suicide, making it clear that the Welsh Senedd opposes the imposition of assisted suicide on Wales by MPs when they vote on the subject next month.
Senedd members voted 26 votes to 19 against the motion. The Welsh First Minister, Eluned Morgan and Secretary for Health and Social Care, Jeremy Miles, both voted against the motion.
There was opposition from Senedd members from all major parties including Labour, Liberal Democrats, Plaid Cymru and the Conservatives.
The power to introduce assisted suicide is not devolved to Wales but is reserved to Westminster.
Assisted suicide campaigners appear to have brought forward the motion with the expectation that they would have the numbers to win the vote on the motion. Campaigners would then have been able to claim that there was support from the Welsh Parliament for Kim Leadbeater’s assisted suicide Bill, which is currently before the House of Commons.
This would have given their campaign in Westminster a large boost but instead, the tactic has backfired with the vote showing that the Welsh Assembly firmly rejects the imposition of an assisted suicide regime on Wales.
This is a major setback for the assisted suicide lobby’s campaign to win a vote on the Leadbeater assisted suicide Bill on 29 November.
Strong opposition during debate
A large number of members spoke in opposition to introducing assisted suicide in the debate.
Delyth Jewell, Plaid Cymru member for South Wales East, said “My fear with this motion—well, my terror, really—is not so much with how it will begin as with how it will end”.
“There are safeguards in what is being proposed in Westminster, indeed there are, but every precedent we see internationally shows that no safeguard is sacrosanct; the experiences of Canada, the Netherlands, Belgium and some states in the US show what can so easily, so inevitably, happen”.
“Laws are first introduced for people who are terminally ill, as is being proposed in Westminster, and bit by bit, the safeguards have been eroded so that now people with depression, with anorexia, and many other non-terminal disorders can qualify—disorders from which people can recover, lives that will have been ended that might have got better”.
Joel James, member for South Wales Central, said “It has been repeatedly proven that assisted dying laws, when introduced, descend quickly into a range of problems, from coercion by relatives to the hand-picking of specific doctors willing to euthanise. It would, I believe, set a dangerous precedent and lead to a catalogue of unintended consequences if it was introduced into the UK”.
Darren Millar, member for Clwyd West, said “[L]egalising assisted suicide would send a clear message that some lives are not worth living, and I don’t think that that’s a message that any civilised society, frankly, should be promoting to any of its citizens, especially when there are many people across Wales right now who are enjoying a fulfilling life in spite of their terminal illness, or in spite of a debilitating condition”.
Right To Life UK spokesperson, Catherine Robinson, said “This vote shows that the Welsh Parliament clearly rejects the imposition of assisted suicide on Wales from Westminster, with fewer than a third of Senedd members voting in favour”.
“Assisted suicide campaigners appear to have brought forward the motion with the expectation that they would have the numbers to win the vote and claim support from the Welsh Parliament for Kim Leadbeater’s assisted suicide Bill, which is currently before the House of Commons”.
“This would have given their campaign in Westminster a large boost but instead, the tactic has spectacularly backfired with the vote showing that the Welsh Assembly firmly rejects the imposition of an assisted suicide regime on Wales”.
“Legalising assisted suicide presents an acute threat to vulnerable people, especially in the context of an overstretched healthcare system. Even members of the Prime Minister’s own cabinet recognise this problem and that, within this setting, certain people will likely be particularly vulnerable to coercion”.
“With an NHS described by the sitting Health Secretary as ‘broken’, and the 100,000 people who need palliative care each year dying without receiving it, this assisted suicide legislation is a disaster in waiting”.
“The UK must prioritise properly funded, high-quality palliative care for those at the end of their life, not assisted suicide”.
