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Kim Leadbeater’s Assisted Dying Bill has fallen — but the debate is far from over. Here’s why its defeat may have saved countless vulnerable lives.

UK Labour MP Kim Leadbeater’s Assisted Dying Bill has died, after being subjected to countless amendments in the House of Lords.

Supporters insist it was killed off by unelected, unrepresentative peers, intent on obstructing the public’s wishes and denying the terminally ill ‘choice’ at the end of life.

But opponents maintain that the number of amendments demonstrate the unfitness of the Bill to be passed into law, omitting as it did safeguards against the coercion of vulnerable patients by uncaring medical professionals and/or unscrupulous families.

Why the Vulnerable Had Most to Fear

There is really no need to speculate about the possible risks from legalising assisted suicide, since we have only too many examples of ‘assisted dying’ playing out around the world: in Canada, where to pick one instance among many, a man was granted ‘MAiD’ (Medical Assistance in Dying, aka assisted suicide) for being partially sighted; or the US, where a ‘brain dead’ man’s organs were plundered for transplant; or Australia, where a terrified old lady was euthanised in a care home – or, more accurately, ‘don’t care’ home; or Switzerland, where people without medical problems are ‘helped to die’, including a British mother grieving her dead son.

And if anyone should notice the supreme irony of creating yet more bereaved friends and families by ‘helping out’ of life those suffering from bereavement, there is always Dr Philip Nitschke – ‘Dr Death’ – with his newly unveiled double suicide pod, in which couples can ‘go together’, thus ensuring that at least one family member is spared the agony of bereavement.

For some reason, such cases rarely make the news here in the UK, but surely the British would never slide down this particular slippery slope? And yet Spectator journalist Matthew Parris has helpfully blurted out the truth, suggesting that assisted suicide would save taxpayers’ money – that the sick/disabled should themselves realise that they are indeed burdensome.

The mainstream media have focussed on those disappointed by the fall of Leadbeater’s Bill, but they have also mentioned the fact that disability groups and individuals are feeling overwhelming relief.

When ‘Safeguards’ Fail: Lessons From Abroad

I share that feeling, having lived in fear ever since Ms Leadbeater first put forward her Bill, that it would succeed where so many others have failed. And I dared not hope that, as with other bad legislation, its disastrous impact would lead to a reversal, because this has not happened in other jurisdictions where such laws have been passed.

For example, in Canada, where it was legalised in 2016 with ‘strict safeguards’, they are now preparing to extend this ‘benefit’ to the mentally unstable; or Spain, where a rape victim was allowed ‘assisted dying’; or the Netherlands, where it is being extended to children and, bizarrely, assisted suicide can be provided to prevent ‘ordinary’ suicide.

Here, ‘assisted dying’ advocates are angry that the House of Lords has succeeded in dashing their hopes, but peers have been merely doing their job in exposing the Bill’s dangers. Indeed, given that it failed to protect the vulnerable from the expectation that they should want to kill themselves (and already the reaction of some to their plight is ‘If I were like that, I would want to kill myself), we should not be angry but grateful.

In fact, a similar Bill going through the Manx Parliament is still waiting for Royal Assent, held up because of questions about ‘safety’.

Nonetheless, advocates also insist that ‘assisted dying’ is popular with the general public, but although in the past this was true – no doubt because we seldom hear about the disastrous outcomes of similar legislation elsewhere – things are changing, with popular opinion going in the opposite direction.

Indeed, apparently, a petition for a referendum launched on the government’s website “has garnered less than 50 votes of the 10,000 needed to warrant a government response.”

But even without such detailed information, it should be obvious that there is no safe way to self-poison, at which point the wonderful idea of ‘de-lifeing’ oneself at a time of one’s own choosing falls victim to the terrible reality. For in reality, medical assistance must be made available to ensure that people ‘successfully’ kill themselves: if anything ‘goes wrong’, i.e. if the poison fails to kill them, their role is not to save life, but to stand and stare – probably at their watches, as they wonder how long it will be until they can take a break.

We can only thank God that the ‘Assisted Dying Bill’ has been killed off, but Ms Leadbeater has already made it clear that she will seek to resurrect it at the earliest opportunity.

‘The Lord giveth’, but in the case of suicide, the Lord does not ‘take away’, since Man takes God’s prerogative upon himself.

There can be no ‘happy ending’ for suicides, and no peace of mind for all those put at risk by such legislation. The price of liberty has always been eternal vigilance, and so, in these troubled times, is the price of life.

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Image courtesy of Adobe.