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In Britain, 7 Unelected Lords Are Helping to Block an Assisted Dying Bill

Critics say that if that happens, it would threaten the credibility of an institution that much... “It is a giant filibuster,” said Charles Falconer, a former Labour Party minister and a...

NYTIMES 입력 2026.04.24 13:02 0

In Britain, 7 Unelected Lords Are Helping to Block an Assisted Dying Bill

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In Britain, 7 Unelected Lords Are Helping to Block an Assisted Dying Bill

A small group in the House of Lords has proposed hundreds of amendments that are helping stymie a bill that was meant to legalize medically assisted death for the terminally ill.

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Members of the House of Lords and House of Commons during the State Opening of Parliament, in the House of Lords, in London, in 2023.

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Pool photo by Aaron Chown

Stephen Castle

Reporting from London

April 24, 2026,

12:01 a.m. ET

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Six hundred and eighty-eight.

That is the number of amendments that just seven members of Britain’s House of Lords have proposed to a bill that was meant to legalize

assisted dying

for the terminally ill.

So many amendments have been lodged — more than 1,280 in total — that the bill now seems doomed to fail, in a rare example of the Lords, Parliament’s unelected second chamber, blocking a bill approved by the House of Commons.

Critics say that if that happens, it would

threaten

the credibility of an institution that much of the British public already considers

bloated

and undemocratic, according to opinion polls.

Surveys

also show that a consistent majority of Britons think assisted dying should be allowed in cases where someone is dying from an incurable illness.

“It is a giant filibuster,” said Charles Falconer, a former Labour Party minister and a leading proponent of the bill in the Lords. It is “absolutely infuriating,” he added. “If all the Lords does is talk and come to no conclusions, which is what’s happening here, then what’s the point of the Lords?”

The House of Commons

voted in a landmark decision in 2024

to allow assisted dying for some terminally ill, mentally competent adults.

The bill, which was scrutinized and amended in the months after, includes strict conditions. Only people who are over 18, and who have been given fewer than six months to live, would be eligible. Two doctors and a specialist panel would have to approve the decision, and patients would have to administer the lethal substance themselves.

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