During day ten of Committee scrutiny, Lewis Atkinson MP said that he wants a society that is “at peace” with assisted suicide – while the pro-legalisation majority continued to vote down safeguard after safeguard.
Compliance not enforced
Supporters of assisted suicide have insisted that the Bill should not be ‘embroidered’ with safeguards; instead details should be left to Government guidance and codes of practice (to be determined by the Secretary of State).
Danny Kruger, lead opponent of the Bill, criticised a tendency of Kim Leadbeater and the Government to leave important details of the Bill to codes of practice and regulations.
He cited the Cabinet Office Guide to Making Legislation, which says codes of practice are ‘guidelines’ which may be departed from, and are not “directly enforceable”, so asserted that it is better to put detail on the face of the Bill.
Mr Kruger’s amendment to ensure that doctors comply with codes of practice was voted down.
Supporters of the Bill have insisted that the Bill should not be ‘embroidered’ with safeguards: instead details should instead be left to government guidance and codes of practice (to be determined by the Secretary of State).
But even then, Kim Leadbeater does not want to insist… pic.twitter.com/b1rGvpfakP— The Christian Institute (@christianorguk) March 19, 2025
No opt-out for hospices
Kruger also called for protections to prevent care homes and hospices being made to provide assisted suicide.
He stated: “Unless we specify on the Bill they are allowed to opt out, they are going to be forced to do it.”
However, Kim Leadbeater argued that putting an institutional opt-out on the face of the Bill risked “creating confusion”.
Consequently, Rachael Maskell’s amendment for there to be “no obligation” for any care home or hospice to provide assisted suicide on their premises was also voted down.
Naz Shah echoed Hospice UK CEO Toby Porter’s warning that consultants could ‘desert the hospice sector’ on conscience grounds, if they are unable to keep their distance from assisted suicide “in a 12-bed hospice unit in the way they could do in an 800-bed hospital”.
“Doctors and nurses want to care for patients, not be complicit through assistance in suicide or the direct action of killing patients.” Danny Kruger
Mr Kruger argued that people should have the choice to live in a care home or hospice that they know will not be assisting people to commit suicide: “I think there will be many people who don’t want to live in communities in which that practice takes place.”
Rachel Hopkins MP claims that, due to patient confidentiality, it’s highly unlikely residents in a care home would even be aware that someone is having assisted suicide.
Rather seems to discount the possibility that residents will talk to one another. pic.twitter.com/YnY0TDeifQ
— The Christian Institute (@christianorguk) March 19, 2025
Rachel Hopkins made the extraordinary claim that due to patient confidentiality it is highly unlikely that residents in a care home would even be aware that assisted suicide is taking place in the next room.
An amendment to ensure that public funding for hospices and care homes is not dependent on their agreeing to provide assisted suicide, or allowing it to take place on their premises, was also voted down.
No judicial scrutiny
Chief Coroner for England and Wales Thomas Teague KC wrote “powerful” evidence to the Committee saying that requiring assisted suicides to be investigated would deter misconduct.
This Bill removes the coroner’s duty to investigate assisted suicides, even though Government Minister Sarah Sackman acknowledged such cases would be classed as “unnatural” deaths.
In wake of the High Court judge ‘ultimate safeguard’ being dropped by Leadbeater, MPs are calling for posthumous judicial scrutiny to deter abusive and coercive actions leading to deaths under a state-sanctioned assisted suicide service. pic.twitter.com/G2O0XrzEEF
— The Christian Institute (@christianorguk) March 19, 2025
Despite highlighting that investigating such deaths is a known and powerful disincentive to abuse, Danny Kruger’s attempt to reinstate this measure failed.
Day of prayer
Join the Institute and our friends at Affinity, CARE, the Christian Medical Fellowship and the Evangelical Alliance in praying that Kim Leadbeater’s Westminster Bill and Liam McArthur’s Bill for Scotland do not become law.
Vulnerable people need to be protected from these careless, callous Bills. They need help to live, not help to die.
