Today, MPs voted in favour of the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill which, if it becomes law, will legalise assisted suicide.
275 MPs stood for life and voted against the bill, while 330 voted in support of the bill.
The bill will now go forward to committee stage and a third reading, where MPs will have another chance to reject it.
‘Bad law on matters of life and death is unforgivable’
Throughout the debate, many MPs stood passionately for the value of life and argued that better care and support, not assisted suicide, is the answer to suffering and fears about end-of-life experiences.
Danny Kruger, (Conservative, East Wiltshire) argued powerfully for the role of lawmakers to protect life:
“We are the safeguards. This place. This parliament. You and me. We are the people who protect the most vulnerable in society from harm, and yet we stand on the brink of abandoning that role.
“Since we are surrounded by such a cloud of witnesses, let us do better than this bill. Let today not be a vote for despair, but the start of a proper debate about dying well in which we have a better idea than a state suicide service, in which we remember that we have intrinsic value, in which real choice and autonomy means having access to the best care possible and the fullest control over what happens to you while you live, that true dignity consists in being cared for until the end.”
Carla Lockhart (Democratic Unionist, Upper Bann) stated that, “The root of my conviction is that life in all its forms is of inherent worth and value.”
Robert Jenrick (Conservative, Newark) also shared his convictions on the purpose of law and the serious implications this bill will have for the most vulnerable in our society:
“Bad law on matters of life and death is unforgivable. […] I am certain that as night follows day, this law, if passed, will change, not as a result of the individuals in this chamber or in the other place, but as a result of judges in other places.
“Sometimes we have to fetter our freedoms. We the competent, the capable, the informed, sometimes have to put the most vulnerable in society first.”
Sharing her concerns that this Assisted Suicide Bill will not preserve equality or freedom but will rather open the door to continued abuse, Florence Eshalomi (Labour, Vauxhall and Camberwell Green) said:
“Freedom in death is only possible if you have had freedom in life. How can we possibly be satisfied that this bill would offer equality and freedom in death, when we do not have this in life?”
Highlighting the warped nature of legislation that moves from preventing suicide to instead promoting suicide, Jim Allister (Traditional Unionist Voice, North Antrim) said:
“This is the matter of the taking of human life. The taking of human life sanctioned by the state…I cannot square the circle where the state would then move to itself sanction suicide, indeed to facilitate suicide, in fact to promote suicide, and do it in respect of those who are intrinsically the most vulnerable in our society.”
The fight for the protection of life will continue
Responding to the vote, Andrea Williams, chief executive of Christian Concern, said:
“Today is indeed a very Black Friday for the vulnerable in this country, but this is not over. The proposals in this dangerous Bill have been completely exposed. The proposed safeguards are completely meaningless, and more and more MPs are waking up to that reality. This Bill will create more suffering and chaos in the NHS, not less, and if it goes through, the vulnerable will become more vulnerable.
“MPs are voting for the Bill at this stage in the hope that it will be fixed, however, the legislation is framed in a way that means it can’t be changed. It must be stopped at third reading, and we will not give up working to protect life and the most vulnerable in this country from these reckless and rushed proposals.
“A compassionate society finds ways and solutions to care for those who suffer until the very end. It does not find ways to end life by suicide.”