Members of the parliamentary committee responsible for the Assisted Dying Bill have dropped the key part of the proposed law that applications for assisted dying must be approved by a High Court judge.
This development has provoked a furious reaction from many, particularly among those concerned about the implications for chronically ill and disabled people. It seems that once again, assisted suicide is being railroaded through while ignoring people’s concerns.
Assisted Dying: an even weaker piece of legislation
When the Bill was first introduced to parliament in 2024, it aimed to allow terminally ill adults in England and Wales, diagnosed with less than six months to live, the legal right to end their lives, contingent upon the approval of two doctors and a High Court judge.
However, on Wednesday 12 March, a majority of the 23-member scrutiny committee voted to eliminate the High Court clause, a component previously hailed as a cornerstone of the legislation’s promise of strict judicial oversight.
Kim Leadbeater, the Labour MP advocating for the Bill, has proposed an alternative framework in which the High Court’s role would be supplanted by a Voluntary Assisted Dying Commissioner and expert panels. These panels would consist of a senior legal professional, a psychiatrist, and a social worker tasked with evaluating applications for assisted dying.
This change has raised significant concerns among critics, including Conservative MP Danny Kruger, who described the proposed panel as “a weird creature, neither one thing nor the other,” arguing that it lacks the judicial integrity necessary for such grave decisions.
He emphasised that the alteration marks a “grave weakening of the Bill,” transforming it from a “gold-plated” safeguard to an unaccountable process.
Ignoring concerns for ideological purposes
The Daily Mail reported a joint statement from a group of 26 Labour MPs expressing their discontent with this alteration. They assert that the removal of High Court oversight undermines vital protections for vulnerable individuals, suggesting that the panel’s potential to deliberate in private could lead to hasty and potentially coerced decisions.
The MPs conveyed concerns that decision-makers might not be obligated to meet patients or consider their personal circumstances, potentially reducing the process to mere formality:
“The scrapping of High Court oversight for the assisted dying regime… fundamentally weakens the protections for the vulnerable… [and] creates an unaccountable quango and to claim otherwise misrepresents what is being proposed.” pic.twitter.com/k85xImKVaS
— Care Not Killing (@CNKAlliance) March 13, 2025
Leadbeater predictably pushed back, insisting that new amendments would enhance the Bill by providing “additional patient-centred safeguards.” She contends that involving a multidisciplinary panel would address early concerns regarding the judicial system’s capacity to handle an influx of such cases and better assess patients’ mental health and possible coercion.
However, once again people think Leadbeater is pushing through her won ideological agenda – and intentionally silencing the voices of those who disagree with her:
Leadbeater says she has “listened carefully” to the evidence. Why then has she ignored the concerns of palliative care doctors, eating disorders groups, Down’s syndrome charities, psychiatrists, the British Geriatrics Society and so many others? pic.twitter.com/1T5PysZuxH
— Right To Life UK (@RightToLifeUK) March 11, 2025
Moreover, this is not the first time Leadbeater has U-turned – and is unlikely to be the last.
Assisted dying cannot be viewed in isolation
Leadbeater and her committee’s removal of the High Court clause is symptomatic of the wider issues with the Assisted Dying Bill. That is, she and her ilk have wilfully ignored the concerns of chronically ill and disabled people throughout the process.
Of course, given that the government is about to pursue an aggressive agenda of benefit cuts that will potentially see hundreds of thousands of disabled people thrown into poverty – on top of the ones who are already there – then people are right to be concerned.
State support for chronically ill and disabled people in the UK was already dire. Now, the Labour Party government is about to make it worse. Amid a backdrop of this, the Assisted Dying Bill feels even more perverse – where the state cannot support disabled people to live, but can support them to die.
Featured image via screengrab
