(LifeSiteNews) — The bill to legalize assisted suicide in the U.K. is reportedly expected to fail after massive opposition.
According to a report by Sky News, the initiators of the “Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill” are expecting the legislation to fail in its current form due to a lack of time. If the bill does not pass through the House of Lords by the May deadline, it will fail automatically, and the government has not given it more time and is not expected to do so.
Opponents of the bill in the House of Lords have been submitting over 1,000 amendments, causing the process to stall.
Pro-assisted suicide campaigner Esther Rantzen complained, “This is absolute blatant sabotage. This is a handful of peers putting down 1,200 amendments not to scrutinise the bill, which is their job, but to block it.”
Gordon McDonald, chief executive of the anti-euthanasia organization “Care Not Killing,” said, “This issue is very difficult, and it needs proper scrutiny – that’s what the members of the House of Lords have been doing. It didn’t get proper scrutiny in the House of Commons. It’s right that parliaments look at these bills properly and give them due consideration, that’s what the House of Lords is doing.”
The bill was put forward by Labour MP Kim Leadbeater on October 16, 2024. The legislation has been criticized and attacked by figures across the political spectrum, including some members of the Labour government.
READ: UK’s battle against assisted suicide is finding support on the left and right
Matthew Parris, a former Tory MP who once penned a pro-euthanasia column titled “Soon we will accept that useless lives must end,” took to the pages of the Spectator to excoriate Catholics for their opposition to the assisted suicide bill.
Georgia Gilhoy penned a response to Parris in the Catholic Herald:
Equally arrogant is [Parris’s] vague assertion that “public opinion” backs the Bill, ignoring the sad fact that many people assume that the euphemistic term “assisted dying” refers to a form of palliative care. The public – Catholic, irreligious and everything in between – are aghast at the aggressive attempts to push through this particular Bill, especially when confidence in our state health service has plummeted to record lows. Moreover, concerns that people could be pushed into assisted suicide to save NHS money are understandably repulsive.
Gilhoy’s took Parris’ screed as a compliment, writing: “Are Catholics to ‘blame’ for frustrating the campaign for assisted suicide? I certainly hope so.”
Proponents of the bill argue that the public supports their efforts, and the pro-assisted suicide side should try to bring another bill to change the law. However, the Labour government will likely not put its full support behind a newly proposed legislation, as there is no consistent position within the cabinet, with Health Secretary Wes Streeting and Interior Minister Shabana Mahmood opposing the change.
Updated.