promoting care, opposing euthanasia

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Falconer Bill

The House of Lords has rejected assisted suicide on a number of occasions, notably in 2006 (Bill, debate, vote) and 2009 (debate, vote). Former Lord Chancellor Lord Falconer has taken up the cause, and tabled a bill to permit assisted suicide for the terminally ill first in 2013 (too late to make headway and falling without debate at the end of the 2013/4 session) and then again in 2014 (when the House gave a second reading to allow fuller debate and exposure of the issues. The latter effort saw two days in committee (1, 2a, 2b, 2c & 2d) but fell with the dissolution of the 2010-15 parliament, without any division on the principle of the Bill (which was based on the law currently in place in Oregon and informed by Lord Falconer's much-criticised Commission on Assisted Dying).

Lord Falconer stated his intention to bring the Bill back for a third successive year; it came 22nd in the 2015/6 Private Member's Bills ballot. Senior physician Baroness Finlay's Palliative Care Bill came 9th, and Care Not Killing looks forward to supporting her efforts.

Parliament: Assisted Dying Bill [HL] 2014-15

Write to Members of the House of Lords to express your opposition to unethical, unnecessary and uncontrollable legal change, or contact your MP and ask them to impress their constituents' views upon Peers.

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