The ~5 hour debate on Bill 12, the Leadbeater Bill proposing Assisted Suicide for competent residents of England & Wales was held in the British House of Commons this morning. This is the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill.
There was a vigorous, well attended debate but the vote on the Second Reading was 330 FOR and 275 AGAINST. We do not know how many abstained or were absent.
Sour grapes! This occurred despite Kim Leadbeater making a retraction to parliament, during the debate, about how she mislead parliament about discussions with the Judiciary: rather her lack of discussions.
Worse for me was hearing so many “doctor” MP’s speak in favour of helping their patients to commit suicide — Revolting.
Next step, the Bill goes to committee. Committee members are chosen by Leadbeater (!) and most Private Members Bills [PMB] get ONE committee meeting which generally lasting less than 30 minutes and Bills receive ONE amendment generally, if any. This, despite an MP (in favour of the Bill) noting that it needs at least 12 major amendments!
Sadly in all likelihood, this means the Bill will proceed to become law. I will try to find out how many PMB’s are stopped at a later stage. This is technically possible, but unlikely now. That would take about a 5-10% shift in the vote.
This, as we face possible Armageddon from WWIII — the world has gone mad.
Dr. Kevin Hay