(LifeSiteNews) — British Members of Parliament have passed the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill.
This afternoon (local time), 314 MPs voted to pass the bill, which allows residents of England and Wales who are aged 18 and over, deemed “terminally ill,” and “expect” to die within six month to end their lives prematurely with the involvement of physicians. The new legislation will make it necessary for doctors to participate in the patients’ deaths by deciding on their eligibility and prescribing lethal drugs. Under the current legislation, the patient must administer the life-ending dose.
The bill, introduced by Labour MP Leadbeater, was opposed by 291 MPs. Thus, the legislation, which now implicates the medical profession in Britain in the direct killing of patients through poison (and not merely the withdrawal of life-supporting treatments like clinically assisted nutrition and hydration, which was already legal), passed with only 23 votes.
It will now proceed to the House of Lords.
John Deighan of the U.K.’s Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC) made a statement immediately after the vote.
“It is incredibly disappointing that, despite the growing evidence of problems with this Bill, MPs have voted to progress it,” he said. “They have abdicated their responsibility to scrutinize legislation effectively and make sure the most vulnerable are protected.”
He added:
Any move to legalize assisted suicide opens the door to coercion, abuse, and the wholesale devaluation of life itself – risks that have been well documented in countries where assisted suicide is already legal.
This Bill is already unsafe, the much-vaunted High Court safeguard was dropped in favour of a panel that doesn’t even have to talk to the patient or a concerned family who want to challenge an assisted death. MPs have even failed to close a loophole that could lead to people with eating disorders being offered a state-sponsored death.
Deighan concluded: “These flaws are why the majority voting in favour is much smaller than in November. It is clear that this Bill faces an uphill battle, and we will fight it every stage of the process. We call on the House of Lords to pick up the ball which the Commons have dropped and subject the Bill to the real scrutiny such a serious issue deserves and reject it. ”