The Prime Minister is unlikely to support a controversial Bill to legalise assisted dying.
Boris Johnson will not advocate for plans that would allow terminally ill adults the option to die at a time and place of their choosing, according to an 8 October report in the Daily Telegraph.
The Assisted Dying Bill, a private members’ bill sponsored by the crossbench peer Baroness Meacher, will be debated on Friday in its Second Reading in the House of Lords.
If enacted, the Bill would give new rights to adult residents of England and Wales who are terminally ill. The Meacher Bill seeks to allow assisted suicide for terminally ill patients considered as having only six months left to live, with the consent of two doctors and a High Court judge. T
There would be an amendment to the Suicide Act 1961, under which it is currently a serious criminal offence to help people to kill themselves. Last month, the British Medical Association voted to drop its official opposition to a change in the law on assisted dying in favour of a neutral stance.
Opponents argue that proposed safeguards are symbolic, unworkable and meaningless and will be removed over time, particularly as they are open to legal challenge on grounds of discrimination.
They say the new law will serve principally as a beachhead for reforms that could lead to full euthanasia. The Bill would not legalise euthanasia, its supporters explain, because it says that “the decision to self-administer the medicine and the final act of doing so must be taken by the person for whom the medicine has been prescribed”.
However, a health professional, who may be a registered nurse authorised by the attending doctor, could prepare the medicine for self-administration; prepare a medical device to enable self-administration; or assist the person to self-administer lethal drugs.
The revelations in the Daily Telegraph represent a blow to the campaign of Dignity in Dying, of which Baroness Meacher is chair. It released research last week suggesting that 300-650 dying British citizens take their own lives every year, with 3000-6500 attempting to do so, in addition to 50 Brits a year who travel to Switzerland for assisted death.
The positions of Boris Johnson and Sajid Javid, Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, who has also indicated that he will not support the Bill, does not necessarily mean that its progress will be halted. Euthanasia and assisted suicide are considered to be issues of conscience upon which MPs and peers are given a free vote. Several Conservative politicians spoke against assisted suicide at a fringe event of the recent Party conference in Manchester. Fiona Bruce, MP for Congleton, said: “We have to keep the protections which have stopped the terminally ill and the disabled from being treated differently from the rest of us.”
The Catholic Bishops of England and Wales are promoting a novena, nine days of prayer, seeking the intercession of Pope Saint John Paul II, to help defeat the Assisted Dying Bill 2021. They call it “nine days of prayer to help defeat an attempt to legalise assisted suicide.”
In the lead up to the Second Reading, Catholics have been urged to pray to uphold the infinite worth of each human person through proper investment in palliative care. Bishop John Sherrington, Lead Bishop for Life Issues, pointed out that the House of Lords discussion on 22 October falls on the feast of Saint John Paul II, “who spoke courageously about the infinite worth of each human person and witnessed to the cross in his final illness.”
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