Miliband Moving Towards Pledge on 'Assisted Dying' Despite Internal Party Opposition

Miliband Moving Towards Pledge on 'Assisted Dying' Despite Internal Party Opposition

Labour leader Ed Miliband may seriously harm his party’s election chances after seemingly becoming more and more sympathetic to changing Britain’s law on euthanasia or “assisted dying” if he becomes Prime Minister next year.

The Sunday Express reports that Miliband — under the influence of long-standing euthanasia campaigner Lord Falconer — is coming around to the idea of amending Britain’s legislation on suicide and assisted dying in order to make it easier for people to opt of their lives if they are terminally ill.

Critics have suggested that the measures have been put to the House of Commons a number of times in the past, and have not been successful due to the risks of potential murderers abusing the law. 

The Express quotes “insiders” who say that Mr ­Miliband ­is considering a manifesto pledge in time for the General Election next year. 

One Labour MP is said to have claimed: “I am trying to make sure a very clear message is sent back to the ­leadership that this is really not an appropriate subject for the Labour Party to be putting forward ­manifesto commitments on.

“The whole reasoning behind the 1961 Suicide Act is that, shock ­horror, there are nasty people out there who would like to kill off their relatives and that is what the Act is trying to stop and it is working quite well.”

But Miliband, who is prone to taking bad advice, may move ahead with the plans anyway, despite the fact that his party is split down the middle on the issue. A recent poll showed that 43 percent of Labour voters back the plan, while 43 percent oppose it. 

Chris Whitehouse of the Right to Life campaign group told the Express: “Changes in the law have been consistently rejected by Parliament which should not have its priorities decided by a well-funded pressure group and its bossy parliamen­tarian cheerleaders.”

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