NBC. Note why they wanted to pass the bill – people were traveling to other countries – Switzerland – to get killed. See the “courageous” comment of the Catholic Prime Minister.
Meanwhile the self proclaimed “social justice Catholic” Governor Hochul wrote nine months ago that suicide is a human right.
The vote brings an end to a two-year debate in Parliament about assisted dying, during which the House of Commons had backed assisted dying on two previous occasions. Their backing wasn’t enough for it to become law because it was effectively filibustered by unelected lawmakers in the House of Lords.
Back in the House of Commons on Friday, the bill had proposed allowing adults in England and Wales who have fewer than six months to live to apply for an assisted death subject to the approval of two doctors and an expert panel.
Many individual lawmakers relayed their own stories both in favor of and against the proposal. The government took a neutral stance, meaning lawmakers voted according to their consciences rather than along party lines.
One lawmaker who was among those to oppose the bill, having previously backed it, spoke about how “nightmares” prompted her to switch sides. Janet Daby said she dreamed of “dying and death” because she had not been “entirely comfortable” with her former position.
New British Prime Minister Andy Burnham didn’t vote because he said he didn’t want to “unduly influence the debate.”
Opponents branded the bill unsafe and unworkable, citing concerns around potential coercion of vulnerable people and a lack of safeguards for those with disabilities.
Lawmaker and cancer surgeon Dr. Zubir Ahmed also noted uncertainty around a doctor’s prognosis.
“I have to be honest with you,” he said. “When I am asked to prognosticate as to whether someone has six months to live or not, I am as often wrong as I am right.”
The leader of Catholics in England and Wales, Archbishop Richard Moth, called the bill “wrong in principle” and “deeply flawed. The Church of England’s Archbishop of Canterbury, Sarah Mullally, also objected to the bill.
Medical colleges, including the Royal College of Psychiatrists, had raised “serious concerns” about the bill, saying there were “too many unanswered questions about the safeguarding of people with mental illness.”
Proponents of “ assisted dying “ — sometimes referred to as “assisted suicide” — had hoped it would mark the biggest change to social policy in the U.K. since abortion was partially legalized in 1967. The intention was to put an end to the practice of those near the end of their lives going to other countries, such as Switzerland, for an assisted death.