A proposed bill to allow terminally ill adults in England and Wales to choose to end their lives failed Friday as parliamentary time ran out, nearly a year since elected members of parliament gave their backing. Though the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill was passed by the House of Commons last June, the UK's revising chamber, the House of Lords, effectively talked it out since then, the AP reports. Proponents of what has been termed "assisted dying"—sometimes referred to as "assisted suicide"—hoped it would mark the biggest change to social policy in the UK since abortion was partially legalized in 1967.
But opponents in the House of Lords have managed to hold up its passing by filing more than 1,200 amendments. That is believed to be a record high number for a piece of legislation that was tabled by a backbencher rather than by the government. Bills proposed by backbenchers can only be debated on a Friday, limiting the time available.
- Campaigners for assisted dying have expressed their anger at the sight of unelected politicians holding up the will of the elected chamber. They have insisted that they intend to bring the bill back in the next parliamentary session, which begins after King Charles III outlines the government's upcoming program in a speech to both houses of Parliament on May 13.
- The sponsor of the bill in the House of Lords, Charlie Falconer, said he felt "despondent" that a piece of legislation, which he said was "so important to so many, has not failed on its merits, but failed as a result of procedural wrangling." He said many terminally ill people and their relatives "have shown such courage and forbearance" and have been "utterly bewildered by the way we have behaved."
- Labour MP Kim Leadbeater, who sponsored the bill in the House of Commons, tells the BBC that she is a "mixture of feeling extremely disappointed and upset and also quite angry." She says she hopes it ends up passing through the normal legislative process, though she notes that it could also pass through rarely used legislation, under which an identical bill passed by the House of Commons twice can become law without the approval of the House of Lords.
- The bill that had been making its way through parliament over the past 18 months or so had proposed allowing adults in England and Wales with fewer than six months to live to apply for an assisted death, subject to the approval of two doctors and an expert panel. Those tabling amendments in the House of Lords said they have been providing necessary scrutiny to strengthen the legislation, citing a lack of safeguards.
- Last month, lawmakers in the Scottish Parliament rejected legislation that would have made Scotland the first part of the UK to allow terminally ill adults to end their lives. Scotland has a semiautonomous government that has authority over many areas of policy, including health.
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