History will not be kind to the MPs who backed assisted dying

Before MPs voted to support the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, Kim Leadbeater, who has sponsored the bill, rose on a point of order.

There were murmurs in the House. Then Leadbeater said, a little sheepishly, that she wanted to correct the record. She had wrongly implied that serving members of the judiciary had indicated they support the bill. The Judicial Office had written to her, telling her off; and now she was repenting at the eleventh hour.

It was a fitting conclusion to a debate that has been, from beginning to the end, characterised by falsehoods. Still, MP after MP stood up and thanked Leadbeater for the way she had conducted the debate. 

I say this is Leadbeater’s bill, but it is perhaps more accurate to say this is Dignity in Dying’s bill. The Voluntary Euthanasia Society (as it used to be known) has for almost a century tried to legitimise the principle that lives can be ended when they’re not worth living.