Assisted Dying Bill
Lord Falconer, who introduced the Assisted Dying Bill to the Lords, has accused objectors in the House of filibustering. He has even threatened to invoke the Parliament Act and force the Lords to accept the Commons Bill unamended. In fact he has no power to do this. It is not a government measure but a private member's bill. The government cannot force the measure through without breaking its declared neutrality and adopting the Bill as Labour policy, which it has no mandate to do.Charles Moore in today's 'Telegraph' lists some of the objections to the Bill which have been raised by peers:how to judge the mental capacity of each candidate for assisted suicide, including people with learning difficulties, Down's syndrome and autismhow to detect coercion by greedy relatives or over-zealous doctors;how the doctors deciding on the panel, who would not be familiar with the candidates, could judge their state of mind;who should sit on any review panels (at present the proposal is to include a KC, so Keir could have a go):the uncertainty of a prognosis and sometimes even the diagnosis of a terminal disease leading to death within six months;the cost to the NHS of finding the professionals to deal with an expected number of at least 6000 applications each year;the question of whether a pregnant woman should be allowed to apply;the problem of language and literacy difficulties with certain candidates.I think peers are right to raise these issues and they should not be accused of filibustering.
Steven Rose ● 8h0 Comments