An amendment that would have introduced assisted suicide into the text of a healthcare bill was withdrawn in the House of Lords yesterday.

Several peers from across the political spectrum opposed the amendment, which would have forced the government to submit an “assisted suicide” bill to Parliament within a year of the passage of the Health and Care Bill.

Lord Daniel Michael Gerald Moylan challenged the motion stating, “[…] the idea that we can impose on the government something it doesn’t want to do, for which it has no electoral mandate and which is not on its policy platform, seems like an abuse.”

Other peers noted the relationship between assisted suicide and palliative care is always inversely proportional.

Lord Robert Thomas William McCrea, of the Democratic Unionist Party, added during the debate in the Upper House that “[…] an assisted suicide bill, however well intended, would alter society’s attitude toward the elderly, the seriously ill, and the disabled, sending the message that assisted suicide is an option they should consider.”