Mental Capacity Bill passed amidst chaos in the Commons
The Government’s Mental Capacity Bill has cleared the Commons, but only after the Government offered reassurances to MPs that the bill would be clarified to demonstrate that it was not meant to authorise any decision aimed at ending life.
MPs were concerned by the section of the bill on living wills, which would allow individuals to decide before they became mentally incapacitated that certain treatments – for example tube feeding – should not be administered.
They would also be able to appoint a third party to have “power of attorney” over medical decisions if they were unable to make them.
Ministers insisted that the bill would not change the current laws regarding the decision to refuse medical treatment, and in fact would improve safeguards on the welfare of mentally incapacitated individuals.
An amendment to the bill, tabled by former Conservative Party leader Iain Duncan Smith, which would have explicitly stated that the bill did not allow decisions aimed at resulting in death, was eventually defeated 297 votes to 203.
In the course of the debate it also emerged that the Lord Chancellor had written to the Archbishop of Cardiff offering reassurances that the bill would not legalise euthanasia.
Text of this letter began to circulate among Labour backbenchers as the Government worked to stave-off defeat – but it was not initially read to the whole of the House. This led to protests, notably from the opposition benches, and Constitutional Affairs Minister David Lammy, conducting the debate, was eventually handed a copy of the letter to read out.
Lord Falconer also promised that he would try to make it explicit in the bill that there is no question of authorising the taking of life, but it is aimed at relieving suffering or ending treatment when a patient is in an irreversible condition.
The Liberal Democrats branded the conduct of the debate “shambolic”, with health spokesman Paul Burstow saying later: “For the Minister not to have told MPs that the Lord Chancellor had given undertakings to Archbishop Peter Smith is treating Parliament with contempt and keeping MPs in the dark.
“The Government managed to persuade Labour backbenchers to support them now with promise of details later. That is not the right way to make good law.”
The bill will now go to the Lords.
