Britain ruled by “a death cult” decries Peter Hitchens after labour-dominated Parliament votes for ‘assisted dying’ by 23 votes, only days after it also voted in favour of decriminalising women aborting their own children up to the moment of birth.
The House of Commons, Britain’s elected Parliamentary chamber backed the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill by 314 votes to 291 against, giving the it a majority of 23. The bill won’t become law immediately and has to clear other Westminster hurdles but the remaining steps are essentially pro forma and the so-called assisted dying bill is now all but certain to be law.
Under the provisions of the bill, terminally ill adults will be permitted to apply to be killed, the application being considered by a panel of two doctors, a social worker, a lawyer, and a psychiatrist.
Proponents of the law have rejected concerns that elderly and unwell people could be pressured into being killed to relieve pressure on the National Health Service or their families, insisting there are strong safeguards and that the notion of a “slippery slope” of change is false.
Royal College of Psychiatrists said, however, that the concerns they’d voiced about the law remain unsolved. They said in a statement this afternoon: “Many of our key concerns remain unresolved. We are particularly concerned that the Bill does not currently require a holistic assessment of unmet need. Does a person have a mental disorder that is contributing to their wish to die? Do they feel like a burden? Are they lonely? Do they have access to the care they need?”.
The vote is the second time Britain’s Parliament has voted to expand the legal killing of the vulnerable just this week, the same chamber having voted overwhelmingly to decriminalise women aborting their children even up to birth on Tuesday. Achieved through an amendment to the Crime and Policing Bill, Parliamentarians voted to decriminalise abortion by mothers — not by doctors or others, who are to remain bound by the 24 week limit — by a margin of 379 to 137.
The change was argued for on the grounds that women who kill their unborn children “need care and support, and not criminalisation”.
Today’s so-called assisted dying decision was a free vote, with parties not telling their MPs which side to support. Because a considerable number of Labour (government) MPs rejected the notion, it appears it was only able to pass because of support from opposition politicians, including former Conservative Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. The Daily Telegraph claims that without Conservative pro-suicide votes, the bill would not have passed today.
From Reform UK, Richard Tice and Sarah Pochin voted for the End of Life bill while Nigel Farage, Lee Anderson, and James McMurdock voted against.
The double-bill of killer bills this week has prompted some expressions of despair amid the British pro-life scene. Journalist and conservative commentator Peter Hitchens asked rhetorically after the vote passed: “Parliament votes for the abortion of the old, shortly after voting for the even more ruthless abortion of the unborn. Are we now ruled by a death cult?”.
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