Welsh Parliament Votes Decisively to Reject Assisted Suicide
The Welsh Parliament (Senedd) has voted decisively to reject a motion calling for Westminster to legalise assisted suicide.
The motion, which called on the Senedd to ‘support the principles of assisted dying and support the UK parliament to introduce a compassionate assisted dying law in England and Wales’, was rejected by 26 votes to 19. The Welsh Parliament does not have the power to legalise assisted suicide because it is reserved to the UK Parliament.
The Welsh First Minister, Eluned Morgan, and Secretary of Health & Social Care, Jeremy Miles, both voted against the motion.
The vote is a major blow to pro-assisted suicide activists across the UK who have run an extensive campaign to push through their dangerous proposals, including proposing new laws in the Scottish Parliament and also in Westminster.
Several members of the Senedd spoke movingly about their concerns about legalising assisted suicide, including Joel James, who said that legalising assisted suicide would “set a dangerous precedent and lead to a catalogue of unintended consequences if it was introduced into the UK.”
He also stated that “evidence has shown that in those countries that have introduced assisted dying there is a trend to broaden the eligibility criteria”, adding, “it has been expanded in the Netherlands and Belgium to include children, and, in Canada, from 2027, they will allow people suffering solely from mental health issues with no physical condition at all.”
Delyth Jewell said she would be voting against the motion out of compassion, noting that laws in other jurisdictions have been expanded to include people with depression and anorexia. She said that one of her key concerns was for the marginalised, including the lonely and the disabled, who “could be placed under pressure in a future that is horrifyingly near at hand to end their lives because the necessary palliative care is not available, or because they feel themselves to be a burden.”
Watch Delyth Jewell’s emotional contribution here.
Sam Rowlands said that he feared a law on assisted suicide would result in people feeling a burden and the right to die would soon become “the duty to die.”
Darren Millar summed up his views on the motion, stating that, “legalising assisted suicide would send a clear message that some lives are not worth living, and I don’t think that that’s a message that any civilised society, frankly, should be promoting to any of its citizens.”
Whilst this is a very positive development there is still a lot of work to do to reject these dangerous proposals. The UK Parliament is expected to vote on an assisted suicide bill at the end of November. Please use our guide to contact your MP today.
