Dame Esther Rantzen urges Lords not to block assisted dying legislation
Dame Esther Rantzen urges Lords not to block assisted dying legislation
The Terminally Ill Adults (End Of Life) Bill cleared the Commons with a majority of 23 votes, but opponents have vowed to continue their resistance in the unelected chamber
(Image: PA Archive/PA Images )
Dame Esther Rantzen has called on the House of Lords not to impede the progress of pivotal legislation in relation to assisted dying. The Terminally Ill Adults (End Of Life) Bill passed the Commons with a majority of 23 votes on Friday, yet it faces staunch opposition in the Lords, where critics are ready to propose amendments that would introduce additional restrictions and safeguards.
Welsh Paralympian Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson has said that she hopes there will be some amendments when it comes to the Lords to "make it stronger".
Speaking to BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Dame Esther remarked: "I don't need to teach the House of Lords how to do their job. They know it very well, and they know that laws are produced by the elected chamber.
"Their job is to scrutinise, to ask questions, but not to oppose."
She continued, highlighting the role of the Lords: "So yes, people who are adamantly opposed to this bill, and they have a perfect right to oppose it, will try and stop it going through the Lords, but the Lords themselves, their duty is to make sure that law is actually created by the elected chamber, which is the House of Commons who have voted this through."
Dame Esther, who celebrates her 85th birthday on Sunday and is living with terminal cancer, conceded that the bill is unlikely to be enacted in time for her own benefit, suggesting she may have to travel to Zurich's Dignitas clinic instead.
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Baroness Grey-Thompson told BBC Breakfast about the upcoming debate in the Lords: "We're getting ready for it to come to the Lord's and from my personal point of view, about amending it to make it stronger.
"We've been told it's the strongest Bill in the world, but to be honest, it's not very high bar for other legislation.
"So I do think there are a lot more safeguards that could be put in."
Conservative Lord and disability rights advocate, Lord Shinkwin voiced his opinions on the close margin in the Commons and emphasised the importance of scrutiny by the House of Lords.
He expressed to Today: "I think the House of Lords has a duty to expose and to subject this Bill to forensic scrutiny" and noted that "I don't think it's a question of blocking it so much as performing our duty as a revising chamber".
Lord Shinkwin further commented: "The margin yesterday was so close that many MPs would appreciate the opportunity to look at this again in respect of safeguards as they relate to those who feel vulnerable, whether that's disabled people or older people."
Labour MP Kim Leadbeater, who guided the Bill through the Commons, shared with the PA news agency her hopes that the Lords would not obstruct the legislation, which risks running out of time if delayed in the upper chamber.
She remarked: "I would be upset to think that anybody was playing games with such an important and such an emotional issue."
A faction of 27 Labour MPs who opposed the proposed law stated: "We were elected to represent both of those groups and are still deeply concerned about the risks in this Bill of coercion of the old and discrimination against the disabled, people with anorexia and black, Asian and minority ethnic people, who we know do not receive equitable health care.
"As the Bill moves to the House of Lords it must receive the scrutiny that it needs. Not about the principles of assisted dying but its application in this deeply flawed Bill."
On the other hand, one of the staunchest critics of the Bill, Conservative Danny Kruger, described the current period as "these are apocalyptic times".
The East Wiltshire MP, whose stance diverges from his mother's, Great British Bake Off judge Dame Prue Leith—who backs the legalisation—took to Twitter on Friday evening. In his dispatch, he labelled proponents of assisted dying as "militant anti-Christians" and criticised them for their lack of engagement with "engage with the detail of the Bill".
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