Assisted dying bill must face thorough scrutiny or a natural death

Kim Leadbeater’s bill was poorly drafted and its passage mismanaged. It is right that it should now face careful examination in the House of Lords………….

……….Some argue it is democratically improper for the Lords to defeat legislation passed by elected MPs. That is a confusion. The Salisbury convention, which holds that peers should not overrule government business, does not apply to private member’s bills. The democratic mandate enjoyed by assisted dying legislation is anyway dubious. Its support in the Commons was narrow and it has never been part of an election-winning manifesto. Scrutiny by the revising chamber is not an optional extra. If a bad bill cannot survive normal procedural processes, it should die a natural death.

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