Assisted dying legislation, March for Life in London…
by Andrew Halloway
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Caption: Young men and women led this year’s March for Life in London
Credit: March for Life UK
Caption: Josiah Presley, survivor of a botched abortion
Credit: March for Life UK
Caption: Isabel Vaughan-Spruce, Co-Director of March for Life
Credit: March for Life UK
Caption: Carla Lockhart MP, a member of the Democratic Unionist Party, who spoke at this year’s march, is one of the few pro-Life MPs left in Parliament since the 2024 election
Credit: March for Life UK
THE FIGHT FOR LIFE! Record turnout for March for Life UK
At least 10,000 people from across the UK came to London to support the 2025 March for Life.
The majority of participants were Christians and the day began with Catholic and Anglican church services, but atheists also joined the march. In his homily in Westminster Cathedral, Catholic Bishop Bosco Macdonald said, “The pro-life movement is not a club for the flawless. It is not a gathering of the sinless, or of the ‘We’re better than you’ brigade. It is a movement of the reconciled, people who know what mercy feels like and want to share that mercy with others.”
Christian leaders at the rally included Anglican and Catholic bishops, evangelical church ministers and Christian Concern CEO Andrea Williams. The march ended in Parliament Square where speakers addressed the crowd. There was a small counter-protest by abortion supporters, who sometimes interrupted proceedings with jeers. One such moment was when abortion survivor Josiah Presley, whose mother had failed to abort him, spoke of the kindness of his adoptive parents. (Photo – Josiah Presley, survivor of a botched abortion)
Co-director of March for Life, Isabel Vaughan-Spruce, said: “Priceless human beings or worthless bits of tissue – what do you believe and more importantly, how will you respond?… Pick your side but remember what they say – the fence belongs to Satan.”
Former PM leads Lords attack on the “licence to kill” bill
The House of Lords was packed in September as a debate on MP Kim Leadbeater’s assisted dying legislation began. Campaigners on both sides of the debate had already demonstrated outside in Parliament Square.
There was a record number of requests to speak, and former Conservative Prime Minister Theresa May made one of the most significant interventions. May quoted a friend who called the legislation “the ‘licence to kill’ bill” and warned: “Suicide is wrong, but this bill, effectively, says suicide is okay. What message does that give to our society?” She added, “There is a danger this could be used as a cover-up… for mistakes made in hospital or for perhaps a hospital-acquired illness which has led to an increased likelihood of death.” (Photo, official portrait of Baroness May of Maidenhead, formerly Teresa May)
May continued: “I worry about the impact it will have on people with disabilities, with chronic illness, with mental health problems, because there is a risk that legalising assisted dying reinforces the dangerous notion that some lives are less worth living than others.” She also argued that there were not enough safeguards to ensure people wouldn’t be pressured into ending their lives.
Leadbeater praised Baroness May’s “very powerful contribution” but said the legal framework of the bill would prevent medical cover-ups. One peer, Lord Forsyth of Drumlean, told the Lords that he had changed his mind on the issue after his father “died in agony” from cancer, and blamed his son because he had consistently voted against assisted dying. He said: “As a Christian I have thought about that long and hard, and come to the conclusion that my father was right.”
However, Bishop of London Dame Sarah Mullally warned: “Above all, this bill fails in its central plank, that it delivers choice. A meaningful choice would see the measures in this bill set alongside equally available, fully-funded palliative and social care services. Without the choice offered, this choice is an illusion.”
“The bill risks the preventable deaths of people with treatable mental illness”
Before the debate, a Christian psychiatrist warned that the new law would threaten hospice care and patient safety. Rev Dr Charlie Bączyk-Bell, who is also a Church of England priest and hospice chaplain, called for palliative care to be properly funded instead of putting vulnerable people at risk by introducing assisted suicide. According to the Evangelical Times, Bączyk-Bell said: “I echo the views of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, including its warning that the bill, as it stands, risks the preventable deaths of people with treatable mental illness.
“Our current frameworks to assess capacity and decision making simply cannot cope with the strain put on them by this bill, because as doctors we are trained to cure, treat, and accompany, and not end life.
“I worry, too, about the impact that this is going to have on the hospice movement – a movement built on Christian foundations, and which has its own deeply humanistic vision to offer to a society which too often wishes to ignore and shut out the dying, those in pain and those on the edge.
“So it’s my view that this bill is simply not fit for purpose.”
“As doctors we are trained to cure, treat, and accompany, and not end life”
A snap survey by Care England reported that just 13 per cent of care providers said they could manage assisted dying in their homes and 34 per cent said they could not provide the service at all, citing staff reluctance The bill passed its second reading in the Lords by 23 votes, but a new committee has been established to hear medical evidence and focus on the bill’s practical outworking. The next sitting is 24 October 2025, followed by 31 October 2025.
The new committee will focus on:
- Funding
- Potential impact on health and justice systems
- The role of coroners and medical professions in the process.
This new committee has to report back to the House of Lords by 7th November, ensuring the Bill has enough time to pass into law in this parliamentary session if it should get voted through.