News

Pressuring someone to end their lives is set to be a crime punishable by up to 14 years in prison under new Assisted dying bill

Pressuring someone to end their lives will be a crime punishable by up to 14 years’ imprisonment under the proposed legalisation of assisted suicide, it last night emerged.

Details of the long-awaited Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill reveal that, if passed by Parliament, it will be illegal to use ‘dishonesty, coercion or pressure’ to make someone say they want help dying.

It will also become an offence to force someone to take the lethal dose of medication that is supplied for approved applications.

Only terminally ill people with less than six months to live will be allowed to file for help ending their lives under the Bill published by backbench Labour MP Kim Leadbeater last night – with disability and mental illness ruled out as eligible criteria.

They will have to make separate ‘clear, settled and informed wishes’ to die and have their mental capacity assessed by two independent doctors. They will also be told about alternative treatments such as hospice care.

Their application will then be ruled on by a High Court judge who must take evidence from one of the doctors and may also question the dying patient.

The wait between their medical assessment to being allowed to end their life is expected to be three weeks.

Ms Leadbeater’s Private Members’ Bill is set to be voted on by MPs on November 29. She said: ‘I remain ready and willing to answer any questions they may have, because I don’t underestimate the seriousness of the issue.

‘I believe this Bill not only offers protections to people nearing the end of their lives that they don’t have at present, but also provides for the strictest safeguards anywhere in the world.’

But campaigners have argued it is being rushed through, while growing numbers of MPs have expressed concern about the lack of scrutiny – with even Health Secretary Wes Streeting and Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood due to vote against it.

Ross Hendry, chief executive of Christian charity CARE, said: ‘MPs need time to digest legislation of any kind, but on a proposal like this – which would have profound implications for our society – two weeks seems too narrow a timeframe.’

Dr Gordon Macdonald, chief executive of Care Not Killing, added: ‘This bill is being rushed with indecent haste and ignores the deep-seated issues in the UK’s broken and patchy palliative care system and the crisis in social care.

‘It ignores data from around the world that shows changing the law would put pressure on vulnerable people to end their lives.’

And prominent barrister Alex Ruck Keene, who has worked on a right-to-die case, said he was ‘immensely troubled’ by the way the legislation is being introduced as a Private Members’ Bill rather than by the Government.

He said MPs and peers are being ‘radically unsupported’ because of the lack of detail to explain how assisted dying would work in practice, such as complex decisions on who has the mental capacity to make the decision to end their own lives.

He also fears courts may eventually decide it discriminatory to not expand the six-month life expectancy clause to cover others in pain.

Related Posts

Massive change coming to cigarettes in Australia – as government tries to stamp out smoking for good

A health warning will be printed on every cigarette sold in Australia under strict new laws aimed at stamping out smoking. Under the tobacco regulations, warning messages including ‘poison in every puff’, ‘damages your lungs’, ’causes 16 cancers’, ‘shortens your life’ and ‘toxic addiction’ must be printed on every cigarette by April 2025. ‘We will be one of the first countries in the world to include this new public health measure, again seeking to educate but also dissuade smokers from using this deadly product,’ said health minister Mark Butler when he announced the legislation last year.

MARIANNE WILLIAMSON: Democratic Elites destroyed our party… its renewal begins with their repentance

Until the day he died in 1995, if you asked my father who he voted for in any presidential election he said ‘Roosevelt.’ It was gospel in our house that Democrats were the party of the people and Republicans were the economic royalists. That was then, and this is now. The majority of Americans don’t necessarily see it that way anymore.

Passenger plane sprayed with gunfire while landing & 2nd jet shot on take-off in ‘world’s most dangerous city’ in Haiti

HAITI’S international airport was forced to shut down after gangs opened fire at a passenger plane. The Spirit Airlines flight from Florida was struck by bullets as it went to touch down Port-au-Prince’s Toussaint Louverture International Airport. A flight attendant was injured as gangs sprayed the plane – which had come from Fort Lauderdale – with gunfire on Monday.

Kamala Harris gave $500,000 to MSNBC anchor’s nonprofit before network’s fawning interview

Vice President Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign delivered $500,000 in donations to Al Sharpton’s non-profit organization, just prior to a glowing interview with the candidate on MSNBC. Harris’s campaign gave two payments of $250,000 to National Action Network on September 5 and October 1, according to campaign finance records first reported by the Washington Free Beacon and confirmed by DailyMail.com. Sharpton publicly backed Harris after Biden endorsed her to succeed him in his reelection campaign. After Sharpton’s organization received donations from Harris, he got a coveted sit-down interview with her just two weeks before the election

Jewish football team ‘chased by knife-wielding pro-Palestine mob’ in Berlin days after horror Amsterdam ‘pogrom’

A JEWISH football team is now under police protection after it was “attacked“ by a knife-wielding pro-Palestinian mob in Berlin. Teens from Makkabi Berlin’s youth team claim they were “hunted down“ by a group of Arab youngsters after a game against local rivals last week. The match was held in Neukölln, a suburb known for its significant Arab and Turkish communities.

Chris Cuomo stuns podcast host Patrick Bet-David by revealing who he voted for

Chris Cuomo admitted he kept his vote in the family on Election Day, writing in his brother Andrew instead of voting for Kamala Harris or Donald Trump. The NewsNation anchor confessed ‘I probably shouldn’t tell you’ but gave in when asked by podcaster Patrick Bet-David. ‘I voted for my brother. I wrote him in. I’ll show you the picture,’ he said, as Bet-David asked credulously over and over again.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *