Former PM tells the Lords assisted dying Bill is ‘licence to kill’

THE assisted dying Bill has been branded a “licence to kill” as the House of Lords began its historic first debate on the proposed legislation.

- AINE FOX, WILL DURRANT, RHIANNON JAMES and GEORGE THOMPSON Press Association reporters [e-mail]

Conservative former prime minister Theresa May told the packed red benches of the upper chamber in Parliament she fears the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill does not have enough safeguards and could be used to cover up medical mistakes.

Baroness May, one of around 190 speakers expected to have their say on the Bill across a two-day debate, said she is worried about the impact on people with disabilities, chronic illness and mental health problems as “there is a risk that legalising assisted dying reinforces the dangerous notion that some lives are less worth living than others”.

The former Tory leader said: “There is a danger that this could be used as a cover-up. A cover-up for mistakes made in hospital, or for perhaps a hospital-acquired illness, infection, which has led to an increased likelihood of death.

“I have a friend who calls it the ‘licence to kill’ Bill.”

She referred to it as an “assisted suicide Bill” and said it “effectively says suicide is OK”.

Leading support for the Bill, former lord chancellor and justice secretary Lord Charlie Falconer said the current law is “confused” and “causes terrible suffering and lacks compassion and safeguards”.