This Bill is due a second reading in the House of Commons this Friday, although I fear the assisted dying bill (which I oppose because it is riddled with ethical problems that have not in any way been addressed) will prevent that happening:
This Bill needs to be discussed.
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I guess we will get ‘this is not the time’. I remember similar in the 1960s in the US with Civil rights. Many were saying things shouldn’t be rushed -event though it had been a century or so since the abolition of slavery.
This poll is interesting.
https://www.caabu.org/news/news/press-release-poll-reveals-89-parliamentary-candidates-support-or-tend-support-recognising
There should have been a high level interstate meeting at the United Nations in New York today co-sponsored by France and Saudi Arabia where it was predicted several major states were going to recognise the State of Palestine. It has fallen foul of Israel illegal attack on Iran, and been postponed. Israel should not be rewarded for breaching UN resolutions and international law by both invading a country and pledging to cause regime change .
Israel is the globe’s worst rogue state at present, and is poisoning international norms with apparent impunity.
Astonishingly the G7 declaration from Canada criticised Iran( the invaded country), demanding it never get nuclear weapons, and grandly proclaimed Israel ( the invader ) has the right to defend itself. Meantime Israel is bristling with some 200 nuclear weapons and refuses to sign the nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty Treaty ( NPT);Iran has zero nuclear weapons and signed the NPT in 2
1968, on the very first day it was open for signature.
The stink of hypocrisy from the G7 is reaching across our planet
https://theconversation.com/israel-iran-and-the-us-why-2025-is-a-turning-point-for-the-international-order-258044
Our amazingly broken political system has produced yet another “divide and rule” scenario, setting the Euthanasia/Assisted Dying debate against the one for Palestinian statehood in a battle for the tiny bit of Parliamentary time that is not totally controlled by the 2 front benches. Sigh…
I know it’s not about this thread, but I disagree with you about the assisted dying bill. In January 2012 my husband took three weeks to die as he refused to eat or drink for most of that time. Anyone is allowed to do that if they have a life-limiting illness and have signed an advance directive, or what used to be called a living will.
My husband had cerebellar ataxia which is a bit like motor neurone disease. He died six months after a brain tumour was diagnosed.
There were two votes last Friday on the bill. New clause one was to say that no medical professional could bring up the subject of assisted dying unless the patient brought it up first. MPs voted against that.
New clause two was the same but for under 18s. They voted for that. Labour MPs seemed to be equally split.
I am not saying I am against assisted dying in principle.
I am saying this is a badly thought out and executed bill that needs to be withdrawn and a proper bill, backed by the govermnment, should be produced instead.
Wouldn’t a government bill be whipped, with no choice for conscience? I can see government spokespeople on both sides of these amendments.
Anyway, sorry for the diversion.
Government bills need not be whipped. The key thing is, they get time and this one has not had that.
JenW – thank you for sharing that with us. I cannot pretend to understand what you have been through.
I don’t like the name of the Bill – it should be called ‘The Humane Release from Suffering’ Bill or something like that, because it is the individuals suffering that leads to a rejection of living, which I believe to be a basic right. I also agree with Richard about the content of the Assisted Dying Bill. Too much emphasis on death and not enough on the cessation of suffering and the safe guards.
Be that as it may, I would like to see the Palestine Bill passed asap.
https://www.thecanary.co/editorial/2025/06/16/war-on-iran-labour-israel/
Corbyn hasn’t changed his mind since at least 2003, the war on Iraq, according to this. He’s probably believed the same since he became an MP in 1983. It’s just his followers who have changed.
What is it that is wrong with the current proposed bill? I have a special interest in this in that a friend died on April 11th at the Dignitas Clinic in Switzerland. She had Motor Neurone Disease and already was finding it difficult to talk and swallow. In case you do not know, the system that i saw in a video some time ago,is that you have a tube connected to a vein and it is up to you to click to open the tube.
Eric
I am not talking about the technicalities, at all. I am talking about the protections, including my fear that people will not be offered palliative care but will be offered this instead, because it is much cheaper. I fear widescale abuse, in other words. That is why this Bill is wrong.
Richard
I have written yet another long email to my Labour MP.