British Prime Minister Will Allow Free Vote on Legalizing Assisted Suicide

International   |   Wesley J. Smith   |   Mar 10, 2014   |   10:08AM   |   London, England

I have traveled to the UK several times at the invitation of local activists to help them hold back the doctor-prescribed death tide. I have spoken thrice in the House of Commons building at the invitation of Labour MPs. I have spoken at a rally in Trafalgar Square. I have traveled from Manchester to Glasgow and Edinburgh. So far, so good.

But the conservative Prime Minister has apparently decided to allow a free vote on assisted suicide in the House of Commons–a first–if a bill pending in the House of Lords makes it through. From the Telegraph story:

picassistedsuicidebThe legislation of assisted suicide has moved a significant step closer after the Government made clear that it would not stand in the way of a change in the law. Conservative and Liberal Democrat MPs and peers – including Coalition ministers – will be given a free vote on a Bill that would enable doctors to help terminally ill patients to die, The Telegraph can disclose. The proposed legislation will come before Parliament in the next few months.

On Saturday night, Norman Lamb, a Liberal Democrat and the minister responsible for care for elderly and disabled people, was among the first to say he would vote in favour.

Talk about a fox in the hen house. I guess he’s never heard of elder abuse, greatly relevant to this issue.

And as to “strict guidelines:” My (choose your body part)! That’s a sop.

Either vote for a broad right to facilitated self-killing or don’t: But stop the pretense because that is precisely where this leads.

The timing also could not be worse for the vulnerable of the UK where the NHS is financially strained and quality-imploding, along with rationed health care, including those facing late stage cancers.  Pressure to die, Wesley? What pressure to die?

UK MPs need just look a short distance across the English Channel to see what your “strict guidelines” will get you; doctor-facilitated killing for the mentally ill, the elderly “tired of life,” a depressed transexual unhappy with a botched sex change operation, euthanasia for children, and a psychiatric patient euthanized because she had been sexually predated by her own psychiatrist. And that’s just scratching the surface.

The good news, if there be any here, is that a thorough exposure of assisted suicide consciousness and consequences usually turns back the tide.

LifeNews.com Note: Wesley J. Smith, J.D., is a special consultant to the Center for Bioethics and Culture and a bioethics attorney who blogs at Human Exeptionalism.