Senedd urged to stop assisted suicide being imposed on Wales

More than 250 health care professionals have called on MSs to deny legislative consent to Westminster’s assisted suicide Bill.

In an open letter to Senedd members organised by campaign group Our Duty of Care, signatories warned that Kim Leadbeater MP’s Bill would impose assisted suicide on the nation’s devolved healthcare system.

The Legislative Consent debate is scheduled to take place on the 24 February. According to convention, the Senedd’s consent is required for a UK Bill to be implemented on a devolved issue. In 2024, members of the Welsh Parliament refused to endorse a motion backing assisted suicide by 26 votes to 19, while there were nine abstentions.

‘Deeply flawed’

Doctors, nurses and other health practitioners said: “We know that care provision currently fails too many, but this Bill is not the answer.”

They highlighted the Bill’s failure “to recognise the risks from mistaken diagnosis or misinformation”, to “assess suicidality”, to provide adequate oversight and “independent scrutiny”, and to protect vulnerable patients from coercion.

The signatories asked: “Will the Senedd concur with UK Parliament providing patients the means to take their own lives when we know they will not get a hospice bed or meaningful counselling?”

“We urge the Senedd to decline legislative consent connected to this deeply flawed Bill.”

Dying with dignity

The two most senior Roman Catholic Bishops in Wales, Archbishop Mark O’Toole and Bishop Peter Brignall, have also urged Members of the Senedd “to withhold consent for this Bill”.

In a joint statement, they said: “True compassion does not mean ending a life. It means accompanying those who suffer, easing their pain, supporting families, and ensuring that no one feels abandoned, burdensome, or without worth.”

“We believe that the right response to suffering is not to hasten death, but to strengthen palliative and end-of-life care so that every person can live their final days with dignity, comfort, and peace.”

They encouraged MSs to focus “on policies that protect the vulnerable and uphold the value of life until its natural end”.

Devolved matters

Last year, an Emeritus Professor of Law at Aberystwyth University said the Labour backbencher’s Bill had been drafted without considering its effect on Welsh society.

Emyr Lewis indicated that the Bill “would most likely have a profound effect on matters which are clearly within the Senedd’s legislative competence”, such as the provision of health and social services.

If Leadbeater’s proposals had been Government legislation, rather than a Private Member’s Bill, he pointed out that “issues relating to devolved matters” would have been addressed before it was published.

But he explained that while there have been some discussions between the UK and Welsh governments about the Bill, “those promoting the Bill have to a large extent been flying blind to the Wales-specific consequences of their proposed legislation”.