Overview
- About 190 peers have signed up to speak across a two-day Second Reading, with the first session opening to a packed chamber and proceedings due to resume on 19 September.
- Britain’s equalities watchdog urged more detailed assessment of impacts across protected characteristics and highlighted difficulties with six‑month prognoses and the use of a Private Member’s Bill.
- The proposal would allow assisted dying in England and Wales for terminally ill adults expected to live less than six months, subject to approval by two doctors and an expert panel.
- Theresa May warned the measure risks pressuring vulnerable people and could conceal medical errors, while the Bishop of London, Dame Sarah Mullally, pressed for a decisive vote on the Bill’s principle.
- Sponsor Lord Falconer called for scrutiny rather than obstruction and said there is time to return the Bill to the Commons, as MP Kim Leadbeater rejected claims it could enable cover‑ups and supporters including Dame Esther Rantzen urged peers not to block it.