Lord Biggar on the Assisted Dying Bill in the Lords
Sir,
Advocates of the legalisation of assisted suicide argue that it’s not for the House of Lords to delay the passage of the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill by debating 940 amendments, but rather to respect “both the will of the Commons and the overwhelming support of the public” (“Assisted dying bill strangled by delay, say backers”, Nov 14).
Yet, during its passage through the Commons, confidence in its safeguards against abuse plummeted. Between the Second and Third Readings, its majority halved and had a mere 12 MPs changed their votes from Yes to No in the final division, the Lords wouldn’t be discussing it at all. Hansard records that some MPs only waived it through on the assumption that the Lords would somehow supply its myriad deficiencies.
As for popular support, many of those polled don’t understand what they’re supporting. The November 2024 Focal Data poll of over 5,000 adults revealed that 40 per cent thought that ‘assisted dying’ referred to hospice treatment or the right to refuse treatment, not to assisted suicide.
The TIA bill is one of the most consequential pieces of legislation to come before Parliament. Peers have a public duty to scrutinise it rigorously.
The Rt Hon. Lord Biggar of Castle Douglas, CBE
House of Lords
Author of
Reparations: Slavery and the Tyranny of Imaginary Guilt (Swift, 2025):
www.amazon.co.uk/Reparations-
Colonialism: A Moral Reckoning (HarperCollins, 2023, 2024):
https://www.amazon.co.uk/
What’s Wrong with Rights? (Oxford University Press, 2020):
https://www.amazon.co.uk/