What have we done?
COMMENT
This is a week on which we will look back in horror. Our voices must not go quiet in the battle against the automatons of autonomy.
“For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb …All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.” Psalm 139: 13, 16b
Make a note of the date and time. At around 2.30 in the afternoon Friday 20 June 2025, MPs sitting in the House of Commons at Westminster voted to legalise assisted suicide in England and Wales.
This is a deeply divisive piece of legislation fronted by Kim Leadbeater MP, championed by Esther Rantzen and given financial backing from Dignity in Dying aka the Voluntary Euthanasia Society.
Passing it is a grievous decision and a grim indictment of the disregard that so many in the House of Commons have for the most vulnerable in society. Coming so soon after Tuesday’s vote to dramatically liberalise abortion law, it is heartbreaking.
It was relatively close in the end:314 in favour and 291 against – a margin of just 23 and less than half the gap at Second Reading. If your MP voted against assisted suicide, do take a moment to write and thank them.
Choice. Autonomy. These are the Baals of the modern age to which MPs, like automatons, have unthinkingly chosen to bow.
And yet it demonstrates again just how out of step many MPs are with wider society. It was only a few days ago that MPs agreed to allow women in England and Wales to kill their unborn babies at any stage of pregnancy without sanction. This, in a Britain where more than 10 million human beings have already been killed since the passing of the Abortion Act in 1967. At present, the death toll runs at around 300,000 a year. Around one in four pregnancies currently end in abortion – almost all for social reasons; deaths justified largely on the grounds of ‘choice’ and ‘autonomy’.
Choice. Autonomy. These are the Baals of the modern age to which MPs, like automatons, have unthinkingly chosen to bow. And so we see with this assisted suicide debate.
‘Do no harm’
Next year our National Health Service will mark its 80th anniversary. In the words of the 1946 Act, it was a service “designed to secure improvement in the physical and mental health of the people”.
Arguably it was a statement of intent that has its roots in the Hippocratic Oath to “do no harm” dating back to somewhere around the 4th century BC.
The vote this afternoon risks changing this role forever. According to the majority of our MPs, no longer should the NHS seek only to improve our health, it should also seek to end life.
This is what awaits if this assisted suicide Bill becomes law. Adults in England and Wales deemed to be terminally ill and with less than six months to live will be able to get help to kill themselves.
It should be no surprise then that the Royal Colleges representing Psychiatrists, Pathologists and Physicians have all raised so many well-evidenced concerns. They are far from on their own. Disability groups, mental health and eating disorder support groups have all lined up to oppose this shameful piece of legislation.
The Bill’s central claim – autonomy – cannot be true when so many people in the UK die with unmet palliative care needs. Data suggests that although 75-90 per cent of dying patients would benefit from specialist palliative care, only around half receive it. Many – particularly the marginalised – may feel that they have no ‘meaningful choice’ but to opt for assisted suicide.
This is a week on which future generations will look back in horror at the callous disregard for human life. If the mark of a civilised society is how it treats its weakest members – those in the dawn or the shadows of life – then our society is a bleak one. We now face the truly heartbreaking prospect of a dystopia where the most vulnerable in society – those who most deserve our protection – are treated as disposable.
Since Kim Leadbeater announced in October that she would use her high position in the Private Members’ Bill ballot to push for assisted suicide, we have recognised that the campaign to stop it could realistically extend to the House of Lords.
That it comes with such a slim majority is testimony to the efforts of so many groups and individuals of which The Christian Institute was but one. Our detailed analysis and briefings for MPs formed part of a bigger collective effort to expose the gruesome dangers of the bill. There are too many to name here, but special mention must go to Christian MP Danny Kruger, whose grasp of not only the detail but the far-reaching implications of the Bill far outstripped that of its sponsor. His courtesy and generosity of spirit in the face of the obfuscation, ineptitude and stonewalling that marked Committee Stage should be required watching for MPs.
Kruger is a Conservative, but this was very much a cross-party issue, with crucial contributions from Labour’s Naz Shah and the Lib Dem’s Sarah Olney in particular.
Everything to fight for
But more than this, our sovereign God is not unaware of what has taken place at Westminster. So this is not the time to give up. Let us not become weary in doing good. Let us persist in prayer. Although this dangerous legislation has now been approved by MPs, it is still a long way from the statute book. We can certainly expect much more robust scrutiny from the House of Lords than the Commons. The upper house affords more time to expose the sad reality behind the glossy Dignity in Dying-funded marketing campaign trumpeting safeguards (what safeguards?), choice, and of course ‘autonomy’.
The overwhelming majority of amendments were not even debated on the green benches, never mind voted on, such was the limited time it received. In mockery of the claim to have the ‘strongest safeguards in the world’, almost every reasonable amendment to protect the vulnerable has been rejected.
Protections for the homeless and those with Down’s syndrome: rejected. A prohibition on encouraging or coercing someone into assisted suicide: rejected. A requirement to meet a palliative care consultant: rejected. A requirement that there must be ‘reasonable certainty’ over the six-month diagnosis: rejected. Even requiring capacity to include the ability to understand key details was rejected. Medics opposed to assisted suicide do not get a proper opt out, neither do hospices who could also lose statutory funding if they choose care over killing, forcing them to close. And there are many more examples.
Meanwhile, Kim Leadbeater axed what she had previously marketed as her ‘ultimate safeguard’ – sign-off for assisted suicide applications from a High Court judge. It was a move typical of the whole approach to this Bill.
Polling has consistently shown that the more the public know about assisted suicide the less they support it. Ask them if they back ‘assisted dying’ the majority say ‘yes’. Explain that assisted dying is not helping already dying people to have a comfortable death, i.e. palliative care, and support drops off. Explain the risks to the elderly, infirm, those with anorexia, and disabled and other vulnerable people, and support falls further.
Removing end of life protections, changing the founding document of the NHS, normalising assisted suicide would be a tragedy; a terrible win for despair over hope.
It will end in tears – of vulnerable people who feel they have a duty to die in order to avoid being an emotional, financial or care burden on their loved ones. The tears of those loved ones who miss precious moments – perhaps years – with family members. In their moment of greatest need terminally ill patients should not be made to feel that it would be better for all concerned if they were dead.
Imago Dei
As Christians, we know that because every human being is made in God’s image, every human being has inherent value, regardless of age, ability – or autonomy. God gives life, he sustains it, only he has the authority to take it away. All people are valuable, no matter how young, old, disabled or ill they might be. That does not change because of this vote.
Proverbs 31: 8-9 says: “Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute. Speak up and judge fairly; defend the rights of the poor and needy.”
This is no time to be quiet. We must awaken the consciences of the automatons of autonomy.
By Ciarán Kelly, Director