‘Deep disquiet’ over Assisted Dying Bill

Lord Falconer’s Assisted Dying Bill, which would allow doctors in England and Wales to administer a lethal dose of drugs to sound-of-mind terminally ill patients with less than six months to live, had its second reading in the Lords on Friday, write Ruth Gledhill and Hannah Roberts.

The bill now passes to detailed consideration at committee stage as Pope Francis urged Catholics in Britain and Ireland to “combat the culture of death” in a message for the Day for Life tomorrow.

During last week’s debate, Lord Harries of Pentregarth, the former Bishop of Oxford, said the bill filled him with “deep disquiet”.

Baroness (Jane) Campbell of Surbiton, born with spinal muscular dystrophy, said the bill was “frightening”. Baroness Campbell, a former commissioner of the Equality and Human Rights Commission and patron of the think tank Living and Dying Well, said: “This bill offers no comfort to me. It frightens me because in periods of greatest difficulty I know I might be tempted to use it. It only adds to the burdens and challenges life holds for me.”