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Ex-chief coroner warns: U.K.’s assisted dying bill could lead to involuntary euthanasia
The former chief coroner of England and Wales has warned the public that the passage of the assisted dying bill could lead to “non-voluntary euthanasia.”
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, presented by Labor MP Kim Leadbeater on Oct. 16 to the Parliament, would allow terminally ill individuals to end their lives within three weeks under strict safeguards. The bill, which is set for a free vote in Parliament on Nov. 29, requires two independent doctors to assess whether the individual meets the eligibility criteria.
To qualify, a person must be over 18, terminally ill with a prognosis of six months or less and have the mental capacity to make an informed decision. They must have a “clear, settled and informed wish” to die without coercion and make two separate declarations, witnessed and signed.
Leadbeater assured the public that the bill would implement “the strictest safeguards of any legislation anywhere in the world” by requiring thorough assessments and consultations with specialists when necessary. The legislation also criminalizes inducing someone to request assisted dying through dishonesty or pressure, punishable by up to 14 years in prison.
However, Thomas Teague KC, the former chief coroner of England and Wales from 2020 to 2024, argued that the proposed safeguards are insufficient to prevent the bill from expanding beyond its original intent if it passes through the Commons at the end of the month.
“Many of the safeguards promised by its supporters amount to nothing more than arbitrary restrictions, with no rational foundation. Reason demands their removal, propelling an irreversible expansion of scope that has already taken place in the Netherlands and elsewhere.
This process is as logically inexorable as it is empirically inevitable, for the very arguments relied upon to justify physician-assisted suicide would also support the introduction of voluntary and, ultimately, non-voluntary euthanasia,” Teague wrote in an endorsement for Rose Kennedy Chair John Keown of the Kennedy Institute of Ethics at Georgetown University and his paper.
Meanwhile, the bill provides that a judge will review evidence from at least one doctor and may speak to the individual before authorizing the self-administration of fatal medication. The legislation mandates a minimum of seven days between the doctors’ assessment and another 14 days following the judge’s ruling unless the death is imminent.
Doctors may also use their professional judgment to discuss assisted dying with patients, though they are not obliged to do so. They retain the right to conscientiously object to participating in the process, as does the “coordinating doctor” who oversees the procedural steps.
U.K.’s assisted dying bill could turn into a “slippery slope”
Teague, along with former Supreme Court Justice Lord Sumption, former Attorney General Dominic Grieve and former chairman of the Equality and Human Rights Commission Baroness O’Neill, has also endorsed a report published by London-based right-wing conservative think tank Policy Exchange.
In the report, Keown debunked the claims of Baroness Molly Christine Meacher, who read a statement from Lord Field of Birkenhead in the House of Lords during a debate on the assisted dying bill in October 2021. At the time, Meacher stated that except Canada, no jurisdiction that legalized assisted dying for the terminally ill had expanded its laws. (Related: Canadian lawmaker introduces petition against expanding EUTHANASIA for babies with “severe health issues.”)
However, Keown argued in his paper that assisted dying in Canada, which was initially restricted to terminally ill patients in 2016, now extends to disabled individuals and will soon include those with mental health conditions in 2027. Additionally, recent recommendations in Canada propose further extensions to “mature minors” and individuals with dementia who make advance requests.
Keown concluded that this is an ongoing illustration of “slippery slope,” in which a small action leads to a series of events with negative or unintended results. And it could also happen in the U.K. with the assisted dying bill.
Visit Euthanasia.news for more similar stories.
Watch this clip from “Timcast IRL” where host Tim Pool and his guests discuss the assisted suicide of Zoraya ter Beek.
This video is from the SecureLife channel on Brighteon.com.
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