The House of Lord's amendments to England and Wales assisted dying bill might be causing a constitutional crisis. Lords have tabled 1,277 amendments—which is a record for any equivalent bill in history - and over half of those came from just seven peers.
This has led to accusations of "delaying tactics" or "filibustering" to run down the clock deliberately and run this bill off the road. Although some of these amendments have been described as unworkable, repetitious and unnecessary; others reflect serious, legitimate concerns, around the prevention of coercion, how to identify victims of domestic abuse and the broader impact on the disabled community, and whether it’s wise to introduce assisted dying while palliative and social care services are so stretched.
300 territories around the world, allow physician assisted death - so we asked experts from Canada and California to reflect on those objections, and if there is any evidence of this issues arising where they live.
James Downer is Professor and Head of the Division of Palliative Care at the University of Ottawa, and Catherine Forest is clinical associate professor of family medicine at the University of California San Francisco.
Reading list:
Scrutiny of the assisted dying bill is vital but obstruction in the House of Lords could mean it never becomes law
