The fatal flaw in the Assisted Dying Bill

The push for legalised assisted dying for the terminally ill is back with a debate on Baroness Meacher’s private members’ Bill on the subject today in the House of Lords.

It’s an emotionally charged issue which goes to the heart of medical ethics. It is also true that euphemistic language is often deployed by advocates of assisted dying to frame the narrative. Another way of describing ‘assisted dying’ is of course the grislier ‘assisted suicide’, or ‘assisted killing’.

Even euthanasia, which is the act of intentionally ending a life to relieve suffering means ‘good death’. Meacher’s Bill will be debated by more than 140 peers, but it’s not clear that it has addressed the concerns highlighted by Lord Tebbit during the passage of a previous Assisted Dying Bill, when he said legalising assisted suicide, ‘will be a breeding ground for vultures, individual and corporate. It creates too much financial incentive for the taking of life.’

Meacher’s Bill says it is designed to, ‘enable adults who are terminally ill to be provided at their request with specified assistance to end their own life; and for connected purposes’.