Assisted dying bill at Westminster from Labour MP Kim Leadbeater: Churches call for increased investment in palliative care as alternative to 'assisted suicide' or euthanasia bill

Labour MP Kim Leadbeater will formally introduce a private member’s bill on assisted dying to the House of Commons today, Wednesday, with MPs voting on it on 29 November.

MPs voted against legalising it 330 to 118, in 2015. Opposition was led then by Tory MPs, however Labour now hold 412 out of 650 commons seats.

A vote in Westminster will not directly impact Northern Ireland, but would influence debate here.

A spokesperson for the Presbyterian Church in Ireland said: “Changing the law to permit assisted suicide and euthanasia raises some of the most sensitive and fundamental of questions about the value we place on life.

"For people of faith, and indeed no faith at all, human life, its dignity, its preservation, and protection, are moral and precious values, which society casts off at its peril.

“If there is a conversation to be had, it needs to be about the mainstreaming, investing in and strengthening of palliative care services that support those who are nearing the end of their lives. The current direction of travel will impact on some of the most vulnerable people in our society and is not, in any way, the hallmark of a caring society."

Catholic Archbishop of Armagh and prelate of all-Ireland, Eamon Martin, said TDs are due to debate similar legislation this week.

“For all those who cherish a culture of life across these islands, the introduction of laws to permit assisted suicide is an affront to a safe and protective society,” he said. “It is noteworthy that medical and healthcare professionals are also gravely concerned at an evolving political ideology which would interfere with their calling to ‘do no harm’."

He noted the Irish Catholic Bishops’ Conference said in June, that legalising euthanasia would "contribute to undermining the confidence of people who are terminally ill, who... want to live life as fully as possible until death naturally comes".

He too said palliative care services need to be more widely available.

But Gavin Walker, Chair of My Death, My Decision (Northern Ireland), welcomed the Commons bill.

"However, it brings into sharp focus the lack of political engagement on the issue in Northern Ireland and leaves us the only jurisdiction across these islands not to do so," he said.

He claimed that recent polling shows that people in NI want an open debate on the issue.”

He is writing to all MLAs calling for a Citizens’ Assembly on the issue, instructing the Health Committee to take evidence and deliver a report on their findings, or bring forward a Private Members Bill

But DUP Upper Bann MP Carla Lockhart emphasised that the discussion is about "assisted suicide".

She added: "It is about making it legal for doctors to help people kill themselves".

"As a society we have a responsibility to care for anyone who is facing the end of life, including the provision of proper pain relief.

"That however is significantly different from legislation which normalises the ending of life and can put a pressure on people to take that step because they believe they are either a burden to society or their family."