David Alton: There is no principled case for using the Parliament Acts to squeeze through assisted suicide

Lord Alton - Screenshot

In his op ed in The Critic, Lord Alton writes about why there is no principled case for using the Parliament Acts to squeeze through assisted suicide laws and how much better it would be if advocates used their time and energy to campaign for comprehensive palliative care throughout the UK - and tackled the scandalous hospice funding crisis. The priority should be assisting and caring for the living, not assisting suicide.

After narrowly passing its Third Reading in the House of Commons, at the end of the last parliamentary session, the assisted suicide Bill fell in the House of Lords. This came after Peers debated the Bill for sixteen days. In truth, however much time was given to it, the Bill was simply too flawed to be fixed.

The Bill's demise came hard on the heels of a vote in the Scottish Parliament to reject similar legislation.

Yet, despite myriad deficiencies and the dangers inherent in such legislation, a controversial campaign is now underway to force the same Westminster Bill into law in the new parliamentary session by using the Parliament Acts to bludgeon it through the legislative process, effectively bypassing House of Lords approval and vital scrutiny....

To read the full article see: https://thecritic.co.uk/campaigners-should-let-assisted-suicide-go