Westminster Assisted Suicide Bill in Chaos as High Court Judge Safeguard Dropped

During the second reading of her Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill on 29th November, Kim Leadbeater MP proudly proclaimed that the proposed law was the safest in the world.

That day Ms Leadbeater said that, under her Bill, “any terminally ill person who wants to be considered for an assisted death would have to undertake a thorough and robust process involving two doctors and a High Court judge. No other jurisdiction in the world has those layers of safeguarding.”

And yet one of those crucial layers of ‘safety’ – the requirement that a High Court Judge approves requests for assisted suicide – has been hastily removed.

Instead, Ms Leadbeater has announced an amendment to her bill which will require an ‘expert panel’ to approve each assisted suicide, following the sign-off of two independent doctors.

Under the proposal, the panel reviewing each application would be chaired by a senior legal figure, but not necessarily a judge, and would also include experts such as psychiatrists and social workers. Their decision could, if necessary, be reviewed by the High Court.

The panels would be chosen by a Voluntary Assisted Dying Commission, led by a High Court judge or senior former judge.

Conservative MP, Danny Kruger, branded the amendment “a disgrace”, tweeting: “Approval by the High Court – the key safeguard used to sell the Assisted Suicide Bill to MPs – has been dropped. Instead, we have a panel, NOT including a judge, of people committed to the process, sitting in private, without hearing arguments from the other side. A disgrace”

Liberal Democrat MP, Tim Farron, also said on X: “Lots of MPs voted for the bill at 2nd reading in the expectation that there would be stronger safeguards added at committee stage… and yet we now see that even the weak safeguards that existed, are being dropped.”

And veteran MP and Mother of the House, Diane Abbott, urged MPs to “vote down” the “rushed” and “ill thought-out” legislation.

Many MPs would have voted in favour of the Bill at second reading on the basis of the High Court Judge safeguard. They must now seriously reconsider their support.

The collapse of safeguards is no surprise. It was predicted by many and is a common theme in similar legislation in other parts of the world. The slippery slope is real and unavoidable.

In truth, a bill like this, with deadly and irreparable consequences, can never be made safe and has no place in society.

It’s time to kill this bill of death.