Archbishop of Westminster urges renewed opposition to assisted suicide

Archbishop Richard Moth spoke out after a Private Members’ Bill on assisted dying was been reintroduced to the House of Commons.

MP Lauren Edwards’ assisted suicide Bill is almost identical to Kim Leadbeater’s failed The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill.

It will have its Second Reading and vote on Friday, 11 September.

The Catholic Bishops of England and Wales said, “Our clear principled objection to this Bill remains and we renew our call for Catholics and people of goodwill to unite in prayer and compassionate action.”

Archbishop Richard Moth said, “The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill which aims to legalise assisted suicide has returned to the House of Commons, and Members of Parliament will vote on its Second Reading on 11 September. This bill is wrong in principle. It is also deeply flawed and, if passed, could lead to vulnerable people feeling pressured into ending their lives.

“The Bill has a serious lack of protection for health and social care staff and risks putting many wonderful hospices and care homes in the position of no longer being able to operate.

“I urge you to write to your Members of Parliament to petition them to vote against the Bill at Second Reading.”

Serious flaws were identified in Leadbeter’s Bill by Royal Colleges, professional bodies, the Equality and Human Rights Commission and disability, mental health and domestic abuse charities.

Right to Life said, “By publishing a near-identical Bill to the much-criticised version that failed in the previous parliamentary session, the Bill’s supporters have made clear their highly controversial intention to use the Parliament Acts to bypass the House of Lords to force the Bill into law should the Lords fail to pass the Bill again.

“The ability to use the Parliament Acts not only requires the Bill to be brought back in a near-identical form, but also means that it could not be amended in the House of Commons, making it impossible for MPs to amend the Bill in the House of Commons to fix the dozens of widely-publicised and serious flaws in the Bill.

“The Second Reading vote on the revived Bill on 11 September will now be a referendum on the use of the Parliament Acts for a controversial Private Members’ Bill, as well as on the deeply flawed and unsafe Bill to which MPs will not be able to make amendments. This means September’s vote will be a very different proposition to the previous Second Reading vote on Kim Leadbeater’s assisted suicide Bill.

“As only 12 MPs need to change their minds for the new assisted suicide Bill to fall, and since seven MPs from Labour, the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats who had backed the previous Bill at Third Reading have already said they do not support plans to force it into law via the Parliament Acts, bringing back the Bill in this new Parliamentary session, Lauren Edwards now faces an uphill battle to pass the Second Reading vote on 11 September.”

The Parliament Acts have been used seven times since 1911 for Government legislation, and never for a Private Members’ Bill.

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