The idea that Britain’s assisted suicide debate pits religious cranks against compassionate moderns is one of the great media fables. It makes for easy copy — faith on one side, feeling on the other — but it collapses the moment Parliament gathers serious voices to test the Bill.
Once doctors, lawyers and ethicists are in the room, the caricature falls apart, and the real fault lines, whether constitutional, medical or moral, come into view.
The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill has alarmed ethicists, doctors and faith leaders alike. Their concern is blunt: its safeguards are paper-thin, leaving the most vulnerable at risk of being nudged — or worse, encouraged — towards ending their own lives.
