“A truly compassionate society protects the vulnerable to live – it doesn’t steer them to death. The assisted suicide bill now advancing through Westminster is a dangerous proposal that threatens to devalue, endanger, and ultimately extinguish the lives of those who deserve better.

Today’s debate in parliament exposed just how unworkable this Bill is. There was lengthy discussion on a new clause to ensure a right as basic as conscientious objection.

Among those speaking, Anneliese Dodds MP and Tim Farron MP pointed to the official data from Oregon: over half of those who took state-prescribed lethal drugs did so because they saw themselves as a “burden”. No safeguards are strong enough to prevent implicit – or even explicit – pressure leading to the same result here.

Rebecca Paul MP, a supporter ‘in principle’ of assisted suicide warned that this bill will ‘harm far more people than it will help’ and that ‘those people who will be harmed will be the most vulnerable in our communities’.  The Commons should listen. If even one person is killed on the NHS because they feel pressured to do so, this law will mark one of the gravest human rights failures of our time.”