Latest news with #HouseOfLords
The Independent
11 hours ago
- Health
- The Independent
Assisted dying latest: Landmark bill hangs in balance ahead of crucial MPs vote
The assisted dying bill is back in the Commons on Friday as MPs prepare for a crucial vote that could see it either fall or move on to the House of Lords. Campaigners are making their final cases ahead of the third reading of the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill at 9.30am. A vote is expected later on Friday afternoon. The bill would allow terminally ill adults in England and Wales with fewer than six months to live to apply for an assisted death, subject to approval by two doctors and a panel featuring a social worker, senior legal figure and psychiatrist. Supporters of the bill have argued that people must be given a choice at the end of their lives, but opponents have warned that it fails to guarantee protections for society's most vulnerable. MPs are entitled to have a free vote on the bill, meaning they decide according to their conscience rather than along party lines. The relatively narrow majority means every vote will count on Friday, to secure the bill's passage for further debate and voting.
Telegraph
13 hours ago
- Health
- Telegraph
This assisted dying Bill must not pass
Tomorrow, MPs will vote on whether Kim Leadbeater's assisted dying Bill should proceed to the House of Lords. They will do so after a process which has been manifestly inadequate for a matter of such gravity. The decision to pursue this monumental shift in the relationship between doctor and patient, citizen and state through the means of a Private Member's Bill, and Sir Keir Starmer's unwillingness to deviate from the timetable for debating such a measure, meant that the first vote on the Bill took place after just five hours of discussion. The Committee Stage subsequently saw the Bill which MPs had initially voted on change substantially. The 'strongest set of safeguards and protections in the world' with 'two medical professionals and a High Court judge' overseeing each case were dropped in favour of a panel including a lawyer, psychiatrist and social worker. Professional organisations, meanwhile, began to come out against the proposals. The Royal College of Pathologists has objected to the practical implications for its members, the Royal College of Psychiatrists that those suffering from 'very treatable' mental disorders could be eligible for the process and the Royal College of Physicians the risk that 'patients may choose assisted dying because they fear their needs would not be met, by services that are currently not adequate'. It is not necessary to take a position on the principle of assisted dying to take a position on the Bill that is currently before the House of Commons. A rushed parliamentary process has produced a framework riddled with flaws, not the least of which is a danger that young people with anorexia could become eligible through the loopholes left in its wording. Any parent who has watched their child struggle with this disease would expect the state to be on their side in a life and death struggle; a piece of legislation which could do the opposite is unfit for purpose. There is no shame in voting for a Bill at the Second Reading in the hope it might be improved. There would be, however, in voting to make it law when it is clear that it remains fundamentally flawed. MPs should reject this Bill.
BBC News
16 hours ago
- Health
- BBC News
Leadbeater 'confident' assisted dying bill will pass Commons
Kim Leadbeater, the MP behind the assisted dying bill, has said she is "confident" MPs will back the legislation when it returns for its final stage in the House of Commons on the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill - which allows terminally ill adults to get medical assistance to end their own lives - is approved it will then go to the House of Lords for further scrutiny. MPs gave the proposal their initial backing in November, with 330 MPs voting in favour and 275 debate over the bill has become increasingly fractious and since last year at least a dozen MPs who backed or abstained on the bill had said they were likely to oppose it. On Thursday, a further four Labour MPs said they were switching sides to oppose the bill. Markus Campbell-Savours, Kanishka Narayan, Paul Foster and Jonathan Hinder said the bill had been "drastically weakened" since last year's vote. In a letter to colleagues, they warned that safeguards in the bill were "insufficient" and would "put vulnerable people in harm's way".Speaking at a press conference in central London, Leadbeater said the bill was "the most robust piece of legislation in the world".She said it had got a "good majority" of 55 in November, adding: "There might be some small movement in the middle, some people might change their mind one way, others will change their mind the other way."But fundamentally, I don't anticipate that that majority would be heavily eroded. So I do feel confident we can get through tomorrow successfully."She added that if the bill didn't pass, it "could be another decade before this issue is brought back to Parliament". Some MPs have complained that the bill had not been given enough scrutiny and earlier this week 50 Labour MPs urged the government to allow more time for debate. Leadbeater insisted it was "not being rushed through", adding: "This has been going on since November. This is not a quick thing that's happened overnight. It has gone through hours and hours and hours of scrutiny." As is usual for matters of conscience, MPs will get a free vote, meaning that they do not have to follow any particular party Minister Sir Keir Starmer voted in favour of the bill last year and has indicated that he will do so again on Friday. Earlier this week he told reporters his position was "long-standing and well-known".Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has said that although she had previously supported the principle of assisted dying, she would not vote for the bill. "This bill is a bad bill. It is not going to deliver. It has not been done properly," she said."This is not how we should put through legislation like this. I don't believe that the NHS and other services are ready to carry out assisted suicide, so I'll be voting no, and I hope as many Conservative MPs as possible will be supporting me in that."Broadcaster Esther Rantzen, who is terminally ill, has been a vocal supporter of the bill. She said it would help those "for whom life has become unbearable and who need assistance, not to shorten their lives but to shorten an agonising death". Leadbeater's bill would let terminally ill people end their life if they: are over 18, live in England or Wales, and have been registered with a GP for at least 12 monthshave the mental capacity to make the choice and be deemed to have expressed a clear, settled and informed wish, free from coercion or pressurebe expected to die within six monthsmake two separate declarations, witnessed and signed, about their wish to diesatisfy two independent doctors that they are eligible - with at least seven days between each the first vote in November, the bill has been scrutinised and the bill said a High Court judge would have had to approve each request to end a life. However, this has now been replaced by a three-person panel including a senior legal figure, a psychiatrist and a social changes include doubling the maximum time allowed between the bill being passed and becoming law from two years to four; allowing health workers to opt out of the process and introducing a ban on advertising assisted dying services. The bill will only become law if it is approved by both MPs and peers in the House of Lords.
Wall Street Journal
a day ago
- Politics
- Wall Street Journal
Elon Musk's Vindication, British Version
Elite progressive conformity is a problem across the Western world, and a telling example was exposed this week in the United Kingdom. A hat tip to Elon Musk for prodding the Brits to confront the scandal of so-called grooming gangs. These are men who shower adolescents with attention and gifts before coercing them into having sex. Louise Casey, a member of the House of Lords, released an audit Monday that confirms what the public has long suspected: The gangs are disproportionately Asian, such as Pakistani—and the government has tried to obfuscate this fact.
BBC News
2 days ago
- Politics
- BBC News
Minister pledges ban of strangulation and suffocation pornography
Pornography depicting strangulation and suffocation could be criminalised under changes to be introduced by the in the House of Commons, Dame Diana Johnson told MPs: "We know that the increasing prevalence of this kind of content... is fuelling violent sexual encounters."She said the government would aim to make the change by adding amendments to the Crime and Policing Bill when it is debated in the House of Lords. In February, a review commissioned by the previous government found that depictions of strangulation were "rife" online and recommended banning degrading and violent pornography. Baroness Bertin's review and recommendations were welcomed by the End Violence Against Women Coalition, but adult content creator Madelaine Thomas warned that policing people's sexual interests could be "problematic". At the time Downing Street said it would act to address gaps in the law but stopped short of committing to a Wednesday, both Labour MP Jess Asato and former Conservative minister Dame Caroline Dinenage tabled amendments to the Crime and Policing Bill aimed at introducing a ban. Dame Caroline told MPs: "In any given month, over 10 million adults in the UK will access online porn, and the vast majority of them will be chaps."That's up to them. We don't judge. But we also know from research that online porn is so widespread that one in 10 children have seen it by the age of nine."Unfortunately, it is the guide that many young people use to learn about sex, and that is why I'm extremely worried that non-fatal strangulation has been found to be rife on porn sites."MPs rejected her amendment by 310 votes to Diana said there were "issues with the drafting" of both proposed amendments but said the government supported "their underlying aim". "Accordingly, I am pleased to say that we will bring forward amendments in the Lords to criminalise pornography depicting strangulation and suffocation." During the debate, Labour MP Rachel Taylor put forward an amendment aimed at introducing tougher sentences for those committing violent crimes motivated by hostility towards a person's sexuality, transgender identity or disability. She argued that violent crimes motivated by race and religion already carried greater punishments and that "we cannot say, as a society, that some forms of hatred are more evil than others".Responding to the proposal, Dame Diana said the government supported such a change and would "bring forward a suitable government amendment to give effect to this commitment in the Lords".
