Assisted dying law ‘set to be stopped’ by House of Lords with more than a THOUSAND amendments tabled
Supporters of assisted dying legislation have warned it could be stopped by the House of Lords after more than 1,000 amendments were tabled.
Lord Falconer of Thornton, who sponsored the controversial legislation in the upper house of parliament, claimed it would ‘fail for lack of time’.
He made the warning before the Lords reconvenes on Friday to continue examining the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill in detail, line by line.
Peers who oppose assisted dying are accused of wasting time and obstructing legislation as a way to sabotage the bill’s progress.
But critics of the bill said major changes were needed to fill ‘massive gaps’ and suggested the ‘poorly written’ law was currently unsafe.
The bill will only become law if the House of Commons and the House of Lords agree on the final draft of the legislation.
Approval is required before the spring, when the current session of Parliament ends; colleagues have yet to consider most of the proposed changes.
Supporters of assisted dying legislation have warned it could be stopped after more than 1,000 amendments were tabled by the House of Lords
Lord Falconer of Thornton, who sponsored the controversial legislation in the upper house of parliament, claimed it would ‘fail for lack of time’
Labor member and former Cabinet minister Lord Falconer tabled a motion on Thursday demanding ‘more time’ for the Lords to complete their deliberations.
“The assisted dying bill has strong views… and is of great public interest, not only in terms of its content but also in terms of its progress through our Parliament and how we have conducted our scrutiny, not least in this House,” Lord Falconer said.
‘More than 1,000 amendments, organized into approximately 84 groups, were tabled in committee.
‘We have spent a total of 32 hours examining the bill in this House so far and have a further 50 hours planned.
‘However, in the four-day committee (approximately 17 hours) we evaluated only 10 groups. If we continue at this pace, this Parliament will not be able to complete the review process.
‘We will be unable to reach any conclusions on the bill as to how it should be amended or whether it should return to the House of Commons.
‘Instead, the bill will fail for lack of time, even though it came before this House in June last year after a thorough consideration in the House of Commons and received an unopposed second reading in this House after a two-day debate involving 110 speakers.’
Members of the group then supported Lord Falconer’s motion asking for extra time to consider the bill; but the motion was non-binding and ministers said the bill should continue its progress in the House of Lords outside Government time.
Lord Kennedy of Southwark, Labour’s chief representative in the Lords, said that because the Government was neutral on legislation it could not make firm commitments about what would happen next.
He said he would seek to hold ‘urgent discussions’ early next week ‘to find a way of delivering what the House has just agreed’, but made clear this would not happen in the Government’s time.
If approved, the bill will allow terminally ill adults in England and Wales with less than six months to live to apply for assisted dying, subject to approval by a panel including two doctors and a social worker, senior lawman and psychiatrist.
After passing its initial stages in the House of Commons, the bill has slowed progress in the House of Lords as changes such as potentially stronger assessments of young people seeking assisted dying and more measures to prevent so-called ‘death tourism’ are being debated.
Dying charity campaigner Dame Esther Rantzen, who has repeatedly urged members of the Lords not to block the groundbreaking legislation, warned that ‘the review must not result in sabotage’.
A source close to colleagues concerned about the bill said: ‘This shows that the bill is in such bad shape that the Lords need an extraordinary amount of time to do the job of properly examining these new laws.
‘Following the evidence presented to the Lords, we know there are extensive problems with the Bill, particularly around the danger to vulnerable groups.
‘No Royal College, Professional body or Cabinet minister will prove the security of this bill.
‘Scrutiny should never be confused with obstruction, and the Lords’ duty is to examine and question legislation; This role is even more important when dealing with issues of life and death.’
The bill was narrowly approved at third reading by MPs in the House of Commons in June last year and had a second reading without opposition in the House of Lords in September before moving to committee stage.
