Senedd rejects assisted suicide

Members of the Welsh Parliament have rejected a motion calling for the legalisation of assisted suicide in England and Wales.

In a free vote, MSs refused to endorse assisted suicide in principle or back a Westminster-imposed change in the law by 26 to 19, while there were nine abstentions.

Last week, Kim Leadbeater MP introduced her Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill in the House of Commons, which would allow people deemed to be terminally ill in England and Wales to receive help to kill themselves.

Cross-party opposition

First Minister Eluned Morgan and Health Minister Jeremy Miles both voted against the proposals, along with a further nine of their Welsh Labour colleagues.

Legalising assisted suicide would send a clear message that some lives are not worth livingDarren Millar MS

Miles said a change in the law on assisted suicide would have “huge ramifications for Wales”, with far reaching implications “for the health service and end-of-life care services”.

Conservative MS Darren Millar also voted against, telling Senedd: “Legalising assisted suicide would send a clear message that some lives are not worth living”.

Similarly opposing the plans, Plaid Cymru’s Delyth Jewell commented: “My fear with this motion – well, my terror, really – is not so much with how it will begin as with how it will end.”

🚨SENEDD ASSISTED DYING DEBATE VOTING SUMMARY🚨 pic.twitter.com/sS8ZM3EFdz

— Senedd News 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 (@Senedd_News) October 23, 2024

‘Backfired’

Welcoming the result, Care Not Killing’s Dr Gordon Macdonald commented: “This is an encouraging result and proves the more people, including parliamentarians hear about implications of legalising state assisted killing the more they reject changing the law, because they see how it would put pressure on the elderly, terminally ill and disabled people to end their lives prematurely.”

Right To Life UK spokesperson, Catherine Robinson observed: “Assisted suicide campaigners appear to have brought forward the motion with the expectation that they would have the numbers to win the vote and claim support from the Welsh Parliament for Kim Leadbeater’s assisted suicide Bill, which is currently before the House of Commons”.

“This would have given their campaign in Westminster a large boost but instead, the tactic has spectacularly backfired with the vote showing that the Welsh Assembly firmly rejects the imposition of an assisted suicide regime on Wales”.

The Institute’s Director Ciarán Kelly commented: “This fantastic result shows that many politicians are persuaded by the strong arguments against changing the law.”

Widespread concern

In recent weeks church leaders, disability rights activists and medical experts have all raised concerns that Kim Leadbeater’s Bill risks devaluing the lives of the vulnerable and coercing them into thinking dying is their ‘best’ option.

Writing in The Daily Mail, Archbishop Justin Welby said “even where there is no abuse, the pressure to end one’s life early could be intense and inescapable if the law were changed”, and “the right to end your life could all too easily – and accidentally – turn into a duty to do so”.

Baroness Grey-Thompson, an eleven-time Paralympic gold medallist, shared how people have said to her: “If my life was like yours, I’d end it”, explaining, “I have a massive amount of privilege. If you think that about my life, what do you think of other disabled people as well? So I am really worried.”

And retired palliative care consultant Dr David Jeffrey emphasised that Britain “should face the challenge of a broken NHS by striving to provide palliative care for all, not by assisting in patients’ suicide. In our care and support for the dying we demonstrate our society’s values to the world.”