Bishop criticises bill to legalise assisted dying

THE Bishop of Newcastle has spoken out against assisted dying as the bill to make the process legal in the UK came before the House of Lords.

- GRAEME WHITFIELD Journal editor

Bishop Helen-Ann Hartley was among a large number of speakers on both sides of the debate who gave their views as the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill went before peers.

MPs voted in favour of the bill brought in as a Private Members’ Bill by Yorkshire MP Kim Leadbeater in June. Labour peer Lord Falconer is sponsoring the bill in the upper chamber, saying that “the current law is confused, causes terrible suffering and lacks compassion and safeguards”.

Large numbers of peers spoke on the bill in the Lords in the first of two scheduled days of debate, with Bishop Helen-Ann drawing on her experience of similar legislation in New Zealand, where she used to live and work, as well as visit to a hospice in her Newcastle diocese.