Pressure mounts for fresh vote on assisted suicide

Assisted suicide could be legalised in England and Wales within months, after reports that Downing Street would not obstruct a Private Member’s bill to introduce legislation. Prime Minister Keir Starmer has previously supported a law change and promised a free vote.

A so-called ‘citizen’s jury’ recently backed the legalising of assisted dying for the terminally ill.

But social policy charity CARE has warned that fast-tracking ‘assisted dying’ legislation law through Parliament by Christmas would be ‘cynical and perilous’. The charity’s CEO Ross Hendry warned: ‘The idea of hastily drafting and rushing through any law is objectionable, but on an issue of such gravity, it would be especially cynical and perilous … This is not a minor or uncontroversial change, as campaigners claim.’