❓WHAT HAPPENED: British Members of Parliament (MPs) have voted for a bill that could legalise medically assisted suicide, despite objections from many experts and professionals.
👤WHO WAS INVOLVED: British House of Commons, vulnerable patients, doctors.
📍WHEN & WHERE: The bill was passed by the House of Commons on June 20.
💬KEY QUOTE: “I do not want to live in a society where anyone is encouraged in the belief that their lives are not valuable,” commented former British Attorney General Jeremy Wright.
🎯IMPACT: The bill could legalise assisted suicide and see many vulnerable people pressured into being euthanized due to inadequate safeguards.
British Members of Parliament (MPs) have voted to approve a new bill that could lead to the legalization of medically assisted suicide. MPs voted 314 to 291 to pass the euthanasia bill, despite around a thousand doctors warning of the threat it poses to them and their patients.
The so-called Assisted Dying Bill will now go to the House of Lords and must be approved there before being sent to King Charles III to receive the Royal Assent and become law. Critics of the bill have argued that there are not enough safeguards in place for vulnerable people. Notably, MPs rejected an amendment which would have made people who merely feel like a “burden” ineligible for assisted suicide, which could incentivize Britain’s socialized National Health Service (NHS) to keep support for elderly patients minimal, so they become more dependent and more likely to request to be euthanized, reducing NHS costs.
The British Geriatrics Society stated its opposition: “We have significant concerns about the lack of effective legal safeguards that would protect older people from unwarranted harm. The current language in the bill does not protect older people, especially considering the link between frailty and feeling a burden on others.”
The Royal College of Physicians also opposed it, saying that it could divert resources from other NHS operations, and that doctors must have the ability to refuse to euthanise patients. They also warned that there needs to be more stringent safeguards regarding the possible coercion of patients.
Former Attorney General Jeremy Wright commented on the bill’s passage, saying, “I do not want to live in a society where anyone is encouraged to believe that their lives are not valuable.”
The United Kingdom would be just the latest Western country to legalize euthanasia. In Canada, assisted suicide has become one of the leading causes of death in the country since it was legalized in 2016. In 2023 alone, so-called medical assistance in dying (MAID) was responsible for 4.7 percent of all deaths in Canada.
MAID has been deeply criticized after it was revealed that some had been offered assisted suicide because they were disabled or poor. Several Canadian Armed Forces veterans were even pushed toward the program.
The British vote also comes just days after the House of Commons voted to decriminalize abortion up to birth for women, causing many to remark that the country is in a moral crisis.
Image via the House of Commons.
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