There’s still cause for hope on assisted suicide

Parliament could be weeks away from voting to legalise assisted suicide. But it’s not a done deal. There are good reasons to think it could be defeated, and there’s still time for you to act, says James Mildred 

When Kim Leadbeater MP announced she would bring forward an assisted suicide bill, my first thought was this legislation had every chance of passing.

Yes, MPs voted 330-118 against the last assisted suicide bill in the House of Commons, but that was back in September 2015 and nine years is a long time in politics. There are hundreds of new MPs and also a Prime Minister in Sir Keir Starmer who openly supports assisted suicide. In fact, we know No 10 offered to support Ms Leadbeater to introduce an assisted suicide bill because Starmer promised Esther Rantzen there would be a parliamentary vote.

For all these reasons, it is clear this debate and likely vote on 29 November is a much bigger challenge than September 2015. I know a few Christian leaders who feel that it is inevitable. A colleague told me that, humanly speaking, this Bill will likely pass. But some recent events have reminded me that it is absolutely not a done deal. The bill can be defeated.

One reason for cautious optimism is that…