There is now a ‘once-in-a-generation’ opportunity to introduce euthanasia in the UK, a leading proponent of change says.
Speaking to The Observer, Lord Falconer, a former Lord Chancellor, said ‘he had been reassured by Downing Street that it would not stand in the way of a historic Commons vote on assisted dying should its advocates secure one’.
The newspaper reported: ‘Lord Falconer said the best chance of securing a vote would be via a private member’s bill in the Commons. An attempt to secure one will be launched as soon as MPs return from their summer recess. If successful, the law could be changed before the end of next year.’
And he was quoted as saying: ‘This is such an opportunity. The last time this was voted upon, there was a clear vote against it in the Commons. But of the 650 MPs who were present in 2015, 477 of them have gone. It’s a completely new House of Commons with a wholly new atmosphere, with a prime minister who is saying: “You must decide as a free vote – and if you decide in favour, the government will make sure that procedural stratagems don’t doom the bill.” In the almost decade that’s gone by, there’s been a much greater focus on the issue. Lots of the rest of the world have addressed that issue and changed their laws.’
The Observer reported that Falconer does not believe that ‘in general’ the state should be assisting people to take their own lives – but he said the state should give people the option when facing terminal illness. A bill he introduced in the House of Lords recently restricted the option to those with six months to live or less. He also rejected the idea of it being available to anyone with ‘unbearable suffering’ as he ‘thought it could lead to unintended cases’.
Falconer claimed Oregon as a successful example of where the law had not expanded from being about terminal illness only to also encompass unbearable suffering.
Recent discussion of assisted dying has included The Times columnist Matthew Parris declaring: ‘Our culture is changing its mind about the worth of old age when coupled with crippling degeneration, incapacity, indignity and often suffering. If I’m right, our growing interest in assisted dying may reflect a largely unconscious realisation that we simply cannot afford extreme senescence or desperate infirmity for as many such individuals as our society is producing. “Your time is up” will never be an order, but — yes, the objectors are right — may one day be the kind of unspoken hint that everybody understands. And that’s a good thing.’
Responding in en, writer Dave Williams stated: ‘The pro-Euthanasia lobby have moved from mocking us for claiming that there would be social pressure on the vulnerable to arguing that such pressure is desirable. Let that sink in.’
