Overview
- Peers spent nearly five hours on the first committee day and advanced only two grouped debates, prompting warnings the bill could run out of time before the spring deadline.
- More than 900 amendments were tabled, with over half reportedly from about seven opponents including Baroness Finlay and Baroness Grey-Thompson; backers call the volume a tactic to talk the bill out, while critics say the text is demonstrably flawed.
- The Government is staying neutral and will not allocate time, though the chief whip signalled more committee days could be added; supporters such as Lord Andrew Tyrie urged ministers to take over the bill to secure proper scrutiny.
- The proposal allows terminally ill adults expected to live fewer than six months to apply for an assisted death, subject to two doctors and an oversight panel; even if passed, the Government would have up to four years to establish services, placing first cases around 2029/30.
- Campaigners highlighted public and personal pressures, citing a YouGov poll commissioned by Dignity in Dying that found most respondents oppose the Lords talking the bill out, testimonies from dying people, and the CPS decision not to prosecute Louise Shackleton after accompanying her husband to Dignitas.