An unprecedented number of changes for a Private Member’s Bill have been tabled by Peers seeking to amend Kim Leadbeater’s seriously flawed assisted suicide Bill.
Supporters of the Bill criticised the interventions as a delaying tactic. Its critics, however, insist the amendments are necessary given the unworkability of the Bill and that the Bill has not undergone “due diligence and proper pre-legislative scrutiny”. Only four days have currently been scheduled for the Committee of the Whole House to consider the more than 950 amendments put forward so far. On the first day, just seven were debated.
Over the last few weeks, a special Select Committee heard evidence from experts about the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill. During the hearings, key witnesses exposed gaps, flaws and weaknesses in the backbench MP’s plans. There are usually no votes in the House of Lords at Committee Stage.
Capacity
Peers including Labour’s Lord Rook criticised the Bill for inadequate processes to measure capacity, with Lord Shinkwin echoing the concerns. He urged his colleagues to heed warnings from the Royal College of Psychiatrists about its doubts over using the Mental Capacity Act in assessing capacity of a patient to kill themselves.
Lord Shinkwin urges fellow peers to heed warnings from the Royal college of Psychiatrists about the use of the Mental Capacity Act in the assisted suicide Bill. pic.twitter.com/OkFpDoynGT
— The Christian Institute (@christianorguk) November 14, 2025
Lord Gove likewise commented: “We have been told by those responsible for the mental health of vulnerable people that the safeguard that we are about to legislate for is inadequate.”
And Crossbench Peer Baroness Finlay raised a concern that the coordinating doctors approving people for an assisted suicide are not required to be specialists in the patient’s disease or condition – they “could be anyone”.
Wales
Peers spoke on an amendment to remove Wales from the scope of the Bill, with Lord Blencathra objecting to “English Law”, being imposed on Wales.
He said “it cannot be right” that politicians in Wales could be handed a Bill that will impact the 35,000 people who die there each year, “and they have no say over how their constituents die”.
Similarly, Lord Harper said he was “uncomfortable” with the Bill introducing assisted suicide in Wales, when the Senedd voted against it last year.
Lord Harper (@Mark_J_Harper): the assisted suicide Bill clearly goes against the wishes of those elected by the people of Wales, who voted against assisted suicide in the Senedd. So why is Parliament considering trying to force it on them? pic.twitter.com/S5r1nvShd7
— Right To Life UK (@RightToLifeUK) November 14, 2025
Scotland
At Holyrood, the Health, Social Care and Sport Committee continued to reject amendments designed to mitigate the worst aspects of Liam McArthur MSP’s Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill.
The Committee accepted an amendment by the Bill’s architect requiring doctors opposed to assisted suicide to direct patients to a medic who will help them end their own lives or to pro-assisted suicide information – weakening conscience provisions.
Jeremy Balfour, an Independent MSP, argued that no doctor should be forced to facilitate assisted suicide, and that the requirement to refer is “not a neutral act” but “compelled complicity”, since “it makes the objector an essential link in the chain leading to another person’s death”.
An amendment by Labour MSP Claire Baker to raise the ‘eligible’ age for assisted suicide to 25 was also rejected, although an amendment increasing the minimum age from 16 to 18 was unanimously approved by committee members.
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