Assisted Dying Bill: Committee Stage
The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill – to apply in England and Wales
See M J Hyde (ed) According to Mine Heart: the Collected Correspondence of J K Popham, Gospel Standard Trust Publications, 2010, pp 315-417, Appendix 7: Mr. Popham’s Scottish Connection.
– introduced by Labour MP Kim Leadbeater, has progressed to the Committee Stage in the UK parliament. The bill proposes to allow terminally ill, mentally competent adults, with a prognosis of six months or less, to choose an assisted death. This was intended to be contingent on approval from two doctors and a High Court judge, although the inclusion of a High Court judge has now been brought into doubt because of the lack of available judicial time.
The committee stage is a critical phase, where the bill undergoes thorough scrutiny, with MPs considering expert evidence and potential amendments. The process is expected to continue over several weeks, with the Committee aiming to complete its work by mid-April 2025. Following this, the bill will proceed to the Report stage, where all MPs will debate any proposed changes before a final vote.
The Committee comprises a cross-party group of MPs, selected by Kim Leadbetter, who reflect diverse perspectives and expertise in healthcare, law and disability rights. Notable members include Stephen Kinnock MP, the minister responsible for palliative care, and Sarah Sackman KC, MP, the minister responsible for courts and legal services. However, accusations have been made that Leadbeater has weighted the Committee with those sympathetic to her bill.
During recent hearings, Professor Sir Chris Whitty, England’s chief medical officer, suggested that establishing a safe and effective assisted dying framework could take years. He highlighted challenges such as accurately defining terminal illness and predicting life expectancy. “If you’re diagnosed with breast cancer most people live at least another 10 years”, he said. Some people may have only months to live but that is because they are simultaneously afflicted with a “constellation” of illnesses, none of which are strictly terminal, some of which may even go away again. Working out who is terminally ill is going to be the first difficulty for the Committee to resolve.
Dr Andrew Green, the chair of the British Medical Association’s ethics committee, said “I do not believe it is ever appropriate for a doctor to recommend that a patient go through an assisted dying process”. Chief nursing officer Duncan Burton noted that the Bill does not specify the NHS as the provider of assisted dying services, indicating that service delivery details remain under consideration.
Dr Rachel Clarke, a palliative care doctor, said that the reason patients will beg her to end their life is not because of their cancer, but because they have not received proper palliative care. People will choose to die quickly – in other words, they choose to be spared the misery of dying slowly with the NHS. She went on: “It doesn’t have anything to do with assisted dying,
but if we do not address that simultaneously, then people will choose to end their life because we as a society don’t care about them enough to give them the care that might make life worth living”.
There is an impression that the Committee only want to hear from those who agree with them. An Australian doctor seemed to see no problem about “feeling a burden” being cited as a reason for suicide by a third of patients, and an academic dismissed concerns about Oregon allowing anorexics to die as a “red herring”. When Baroness Falkner, head of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, proposed that Bill consider an impact assessment for all vulnerable groups, especially the disabled, there seemed to be an attitude of indifference.
The Committee is also evaluating proposals to expand the Bill’s scope. Former High Court judge Sir Nicholas Mostyn, who has Parkinson’s disease, advocated including individuals with neuro-degenerative diseases like Parkinson’s and dementia, citing the severe end-of-life suffering these patients often endure. Mostyn said end-of-life suffering for Parkinson’s patients was intolerable, with some unable to swallow. “This is what I’m facing,” he said, “and I’d like to know why opponents are determined to condemn me to that.”
Conversely, concerns have been raised about the Bill’s application to younger individuals; in Scotland a senior police officer called for clarity regarding provisions that would allow terminally ill 16-year-olds to seek assisted death, highlighting discrepancies with other legal definitions of adulthood.
It has been reported that a number of MPs, who previously voted for the Bill to move forward, are having second thoughts and may vote against it at the next stage. Although it is quite apparent that palliative care is woefully inadequate in this country and ought to be significantly improved, we hope and pray that when this Bill next comes up for debate it will receive a resounding defeat. Dr Clarke’s contribution to the debate gets close to the crux of the matter – do we as a society care sufficiently about the terminally ill? Sadly our society no longer sees life as a precious gift from God, or believes that man was made in His image and that our lives are in God’s hands, not ours.
FDR
Families and the Mental Health of Children
A think-tank called the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) is concerned at the “over-medicalisation of mental health”. Many people in Britain are receiving medication for their mental health because they are failing to cope with the ordinary difficulties of human life. Nearly a fifth of adults in England are taking anti-depressants. The CSJ report does not mention religion, but it is
clear that the abandoning of religion has left many people in Britain without support, and without anyone to talk to.
The CSJ is also concerned about the spreading of this situation to children. “Currently a fifth of children aged 8 to 16 have a probable mental health disorder, up from 12.5% in 2017.” The CSJ predicts that the number will have risen to a quarter by 2030. One of the “drivers” behind this spread of “probable mental health disorder” is family breakdown. “The UK is a global leader in family breakdown, a key indicator of mental health in children. Those who have experienced family breakdown before the age of 18 are 1.7 times as likely as those who have not to experience mental ill-health.” The conclusions come as no surprise to Christians. Rulers ought to support marriage and the family, and the failure to do this will have many harmful consequences.
DWBS
Gender Ideology in the United States
President Donald Trump, as one of his first acts, has issued an Executive Order entitled, “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government”. The Order seeks to eliminate gender ideology from the federal Government. Guidance following the Order instructs officials to ensure:
- Termination of contracts, programmes, and grants that promote gender ideology.
- Placement on leave of any employee whose job involves promoting gender ideology.
- Removal of all websites and social media accounts that promote gender ideology.
- Termination of e-mail system features with a pronoun prompt.
- Withdrawal of all orders, regulations and communications that promote gender ideology.
- Cancellation of any training that promotes gender ideology.
- Disbandment of resource groups that promote gender ideology.
- Alteration of forms to include only male and female options.
- Replacement of the word “gender” with “sex” on all documents.
- Ensuring intimate spaces are based on sex, not gender identity.
Further Executive Orders ban children from receiving transgender drugs and seek to remove gender-identity indoctrination from schools. Gender ideology is an evil compound of falsehood, sexual perversion and folly, and we are glad to see it receiving such a setback in the US. Many big American companies such as Google, Meta, Amazon, Pepsi, McDonald’s and Walmart have responded by reducing or scrapping their DEI (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion) programmes. We pray that such a day will soon come in Britain. DWBS
Recent Developments in the USA and the Need for Revival
It is intriguing to observe the significant impact that the new President of the United States has had on his country and other parts of the world since his inauguration earlier this year. The news media in various countries, including the United Kingdom, have been taken aback, with many apparently feeling enraged as they increasingly become aware of the extensive implications of recent events and what will possibly soon become the new norm. They are shocked, if not incredulous, at what they perceive as the audacity of the new administration in adhering to its manifesto and swiftly implementing the promised policies. Many on the liberal left are aghast and visibly angry at the speed and extent to which the “woke” order, which has been so widely accepted in recent years, is being rapidly repudiated and replaced with more generally acceptable, sensible and conservative societal changes.
Governments worldwide have been taken aback. They are full of condemnation, expressing their profound alarm at the new era that has emerged, fearing (no doubt) that this new order may spread and affect others in various parts of the world, especially as numerous nations are currently in political turmoil and facing governmental elections in the coming months.
Shock, incredulity, horror and proposals of legal challenges have characterised vast numbers in the USA and elsewhere who, in recent years, have ardently promoted the woke agenda with arrogant abandon. They now vehemently and ferociously oppose both the changes that have been implemented and those they fear are yet to come. Others of a more reasonable and conservative mindset, however, including many who fear God, cautiously rejoice and express gratitude for what seems to be (at least, in certain respects) the dawning of a new day.
Some more closely aligned with the events might wonder whether the changes of the past few weeks could be described as the beginning of a spiritual revival or awakening of some form. This might hold true if there was evidence that the President of the USA and the supporters of these changes had been wondrously transformed by the almighty power of the Holy Spirit working in conjunction with His Word and if these people were now directly motivated by the righteous demands of the law of God.
Then the resulting significant changes would be clearly explained from a spiritual and Biblical perspective. Having been personally confronted with the power of the Divine, authoritative claims of Holy Scripture, they would have been convicted of sin, and humbled by a sense of their guilt before Almighty God. They would have sought mercy in the name of the Lord Jesus
Christ, the one and only Saviour of sinners and, having found repentance, they would have sought grace to turn away from all known sin. Not only would their private lives have been dramatically turned upside down, but all their political and social aspirations would also have been fundamentally reformed to align with the Divine law of the Holy Scriptures.
Some may think of Cyrus and Nebuchadnezzar, along with others mentioned in the Holy Scriptures, whom the Lord has used as His servants. Of course, we cannot know how the Lord may be working in the minds or hearts of anyone within the administration, or anyone else in the USA. Similarly, we have no understanding of what lies ahead for the USA (or any other country) in the coming months and years; many things may surprise us, but everything that has occurred or is happening, and all that is yet to take place, will be entirely in accordance with His eternal decree, manifesting His divine purposes, and all for the glory and praise of His Name. No mere mortal can begin to comprehend the unfolding of the mysterious providence of the incomprehensible God.
While this partial transformation of society in the USA is welcome, it is abundantly clear that the people of the USA (and the world at large) are in dire need of a far more significant and profound “earthquake”. The broadly atheistic, humanistic and heathen societies of the world, immersed in all manner of evil, need a spiritual “earthquake” that would truly impact and transform them into societies that are godly – embodying love, righteousness and truth. Such a wondrous change can and will only be achieved through the mighty power of God.
Therefore let us be earnest in our prayers as individuals, as families, as congregations, and as a Church for such a mighty outpouring of the Spirit of God – on Jew and Gentile – among all the nations of the world, for the praise, honour and glory of His Name, and the advance of the kingdom of Christ throughout the world, so that the whole earth might be filled with His glory (see Ps 72:19)! DPR