Peers urged not to stand in way as assisted dying moves step closer

BISHOPS and peers were warned not to stand in the way of legalising assisted dying, as a proposed new law moved a step closer in England and Wales.

- AINE FOX, GEORGE THOMPSON, WILL DURRANT and RHIANNON JAMES

The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill passed second reading stage in the House of Lords yesterday - the furthest any such legislation has progressed through Parliament at Westminster.

The Bill was nodded through, meaning no vote was taken - as is usual for this stage of legislation in the House of Lords.

But it is now set to go through further “unprecedented” scrutiny by a select committee of peers before moving along any further in the parliamentary process after an amendment by Baroness Luciana Berger was agreed to.

Archbishop of York Stephen Cottrell, the Church of England’s most senior bishop, was said by Lord Forsyth of Drumlean to have “threatened to vote down the Bill” at a later stage in its progress through Parliament and he urged him to “think again about that.”

Mr Cottrell, who described the Bill as “wrong because it ruptures relationships” and will “turbocharge” the agonising choices facing poor and vulnerable people, said he and the Bishop of London Dame Sarah Mullally are prepared to force a vote on the legislation at a later third reading stage.

He said: “If this Bill does reach a third reading, then we from these benches will be prepared to table an amendment to offer us a vote.”

While Bills at third reading in the Lords are presented to peers for approval, they are not always put to a vote.

A Bill’s usual passage through the Lords sees second reading followed by whole-House committee scrutiny then report stage, then third reading.