Regardless of where you stand on the wrenching issue of assisted dying—an issue that strikes at the very heart of our moral and ethical fabric—the way in which this Bill has been bludgeoned through the Commons should alarm everyone.
This is not the careful deliberation of a nation contemplating one of its most profound social changes.
This is policy-making in a rush, executed by a Parliament that seems to have misplaced its sense of duty and diligence.
This Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill has passed its first hurdle by a majority of 55. It has been waved through with such unseemly haste, like a hurriedly wrapped gift concealing all manner of flaws, as though our MPs were simply too preoccupied—or too inexperienced—to grapple with the full weight of what they were doing.
Let us be clear: this is a Parliament that does not command the gravitas or wisdom required for such a momentous decision.
As Dan Wootton points out: Three former Prime Ministers, every major religious leader, the mother and father of the House, the sitting Health Secretary, and even the Association for Palliative Medicine—the very doctors on the frontline of end-of-life care—have voiced grave concerns, and yet their words appear to have fallen on deaf ears.
One might have thought that in the midst of an NHS crisis, our legislators would focus their energies on supporting palliative care, fixing waiting lists, and ensuring dignity for the dying. Instead, we are hurtling toward state-sanctioned suicide under the banner of assisted dying, pushed through with an inadequate bill, via an inadequate process, at an entirely inappropriate time.
What does this say about the state of our Parliament? About the novice hands steering this ship? Socialist Labour and their allies have seized this moment to fundamentally alter the social fabric of our country, sneaking in this seismic shift with neither the scrutiny nor the gravitas such a change demands.
We are better than this. We should demand better than this. Slow hand clap for a Parliament in such a hurry to cross the Rubicon, without pausing to understand the depths of the waters they are wading into.
And so, I say to this inexperienced Parliament: you may have your victory today. But the consequences of your incompetence will ripple far beyond this chamber.
History will judge you. And it won’t be kind.
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That is your opinion – what about those who like to give people a choice?