Good news not being thick on the ground these days, I’m delighted to note some very good news from the mother country: on April 24, the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill failed to gain passage in the United Kingdom’s House of Lords, thus ending, for now, the efforts to legalize assisted suicide in England and Wales. A month earlier, the Scottish Parliament, by a vote of 69-57, also rejected an “assisted dying” bill. For the moment, then, the culture of death, against which John Paul II cautioned in the 1995 encyclical Evangelium Vitae (The Gospel of Life), has suffered a major setback.
The struggle, however, is far from over.
When I first wrote about it last October, the defeat of the assisted dying bill in the Westminster Parliament seemed unlikely. In June 2025, the bill had passed the House of Commons by 314-291 and passage through the Lords seemed likely. But unlike legislative procedure in the Commons, proposed legislative amendments in the Lords must be thoroughly debated. Hundreds of amendments were proposed and the parliamentary clock finally ran out on the bill. Those amendments reflected an intense lobbying campaign by pro-life organizations and effective parliamentary work by members of the British upper house like Lord Alton of Liverpool and Lord Moore of Etchingham.
As David Alton wrote me in response to an email of congratulations, “the [House of Lords] scrutiny and especially the recent vote in the Scottish Parliament against euthanasia legislation has been an incredibly important moment. They demonstrated that, when proper consideration is given to the ethical and practical concerns, we can sometimes have the courage to defy the zeitgeist.” Charles Moore, in response to the same e-mail, told me that “the other side overreached,” but warned that “they’ll be back.”
Lord Alton did not disagree: “[Chesterton] observed, after the defeat of…[the] 1913 Mental Deficiency Bill to sterilise those classified as ‘feeble-minded’ or ‘moral defectives’ [that] ‘the dazed dupes will be back again.’”
As they undoubtedly will. A proponent of the Scottish assisted dying bill, Liam McArthur, described its defeat as “unforgivable,” charging the bill’s opponents with having raised false fears; the bill, he claimed, was “tightly drawn” and “heavily safeguarded.” Similar guarantees were offered by Sandesh Gulhane, another Scottish parliamentarian and himself a doctor, who claimed that it was a “good bill, a sound bill” that offered “compassion, safeguards, and dignity for those facing the end of life.” Mr. McArthur and Dr. Gulhane were evidently unfamiliar with the maxim, widely attested by recent history, that when the formerly impermissible becomes permissible, it will sooner or later seem mandatory—the compassionate thing to do.
That has certainly been the case in Canada, for in the True North Strong and Free, pressures on patients to agree to Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) are such that, as my colleague Carl Trueman recently observed, “Euthanasia now accounts for approximately one in twenty deaths in Canada. The government has now killed almost as many Canadian citizens as were slaughtered by the forces of the Kaiser and then of Hitler in the First and Second World Wars combined.”
In 2021, MAiD was the fifth most common cause of death in Canada—a fact obscured (deliberately?) by the Canadian government, whose statistical service does not “code” MAiD deaths as such but by the deceased’s underlying condition. The Canadian assisted dying program has corrupted the medical professions and coarsened family relations, as described in a horrific, clarifying article published in 2024 in the London-based Spectator. But surely there is enough corruption and coarsening in 21st-century culture without turning the arts of healing into the arts of death-dealing.
Dr. Gulhane, the Scottish parliamentary enthusiast for assisted dying, told the Guardian that “Choice matters.” But as ever, advocates of the culture of death never finish the sentence: Choose what?
The object of our choosing is what invests that choosing with dignity, or, conversely, degrades us. Choice untethered from reason and virtue is childish willfulness. Choice as an expression of my “autonomy” is the worship of the false god of the imperial self: the god of Me, Myself, and I. And the worship of false gods never conduces to personal happiness or social solidarity.
So full marks to David Alton, Charles Moore, and the pro-life advocacy groups who fought and won the good fight in the House of Lords. But let’s not forget Lord Alton’s warning: “Eugenics, and the death wish, will keep coming back.” Legislative vigilance is thus essential. So is building the culture of life by expanding access to palliative end-of-life care.
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The choice in Great Britain is a simple one: The British return to the worship of the Trinitarian God of its heritage or it submit to the Islamic hordes that they continue to allow to invade their land.
At this point, how does that happen?
The militant invasive population is being used as an agent of anarcho-tyranny, provided with unfettered access to the UK welfare state and exempted from police interdiction, even as the police spend their time arresting on-line commenters who criticize Islam. No longer can one dismiss rumors of King Alfred E. Neuman’s crypto-conversion.
A reminder, the “King” neglected to put out a statement celebrating Easter. This is not abnormal in the history of the modern British monarchy; Queen Elizabeth only delivered one Easter message in her 70 year reign. What is abnormal is Charles III’s pattern of marking Muslim holidays like Ramadan and Eid while sidestepping Christian ones. For Holy Week in 2025, Buckingham Palace released a message on Maundy Thursday that strangely included praise of Islam’s “deep human instinct.” For Ramadan, Charles put out messages of support to British Muslims, packaged dates for Muslim families, and for the first time in its 1000 year history, opened Windsor Castle to Muslims breaking their fast.
Even if they do as a people have a mass spiritual awakening, what’s the vehicle of their return. Anglicanism? That was, to quote Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan, a “vapid and hollow charade” ad initio.
England’s fate was decided five centuries ago by the libidinous mass murderer Tudor five centuries ago.
Errata:
Ab initio, not ad.
King Charles isn’t a crypto Muslim but he does lean towards Eastern Orthodoxy. Which I don’t think is bad thing.
On your point of unfettered access to the UK welfare state… You do realize that in the US ILLEGAL ALIENS receive medicaid and snap benefits! At least in my state they do!
That is not true in any state.
Not so fasyt there, Readyfireaim.
The Food Stamp program provided benefits to 1.465 million noncitizens in fiscal year 2022, the latest data available from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). Another 2.2 million children living with noncitizens were also on Food Stamps.
These nearly 1.5 million noncitizens collected a total of $4.2 billion in Food Stamp benefit payments.
According to the USDA, the noncitizens include “lawful permanent residents, refugees, asylees, those granted a stay of deportation, and undocumented individuals… Undocumented individuals are not eligible to receive SNAP benefits, but may be nonparticipating members of SNAP households.”
California led the way in enrolling noncitizens on Food Stamps, with 273,000 in FY 2022. Florida had 238,000, New York 218,000, Texas 132,000, and Illinois 73,000 noncitizens. In contrast, Delaware, Mississippi, Montana, West Virginia, and Wyoming reported no noncitizens on Food Stamps.
I am very glad the bill did not pass in the house of lords. I don’t know that we can say it was defeated since the amendment process kept it from coming up for a vote.
The Canadian author Michael O’Brien saw this coming – decades ago.
Back in 1968 I saw a sign that said – “The World is fragile – handle with prayer.”
True then – truer now.
We live in perilous times.
This is good news. Thank you for reporting on it. I only criticize your use of “the mother country” label for the UK.
The UK is the “mother country” though, French Canadians might take exception possibly. And King Charles is still monarch for Canada.
I am Canadian and I see the scourge of euthanasia being propagated relentlessly in my country. Members of my own extended family are advising everyone that they are choosing MAiD (Medical Assistance in Dying) when they will start to decline. For the most part, they are atheists; they do not believe in redemptive suffering, in prayer, nor in eternal life. They do not seem to be aware of the gift of palliative care, which is supported by the Church.
I wrote a comprehensive article about this euthanasia mindset, which was published in the Spring 2026 issue of Celebrate Life Magazine (CLM): Compassion and Love Can Prevent Euthanasia (https://clmagazine.org/topic/end-of-life/compassion-and-love-can-prevent-euthanasia/).
David Alton and his pro-life peers are literally fighting the good fight. We must protect life at both ends of the spectrum. The sick and elderly must be accompanied with compassion and spiritual care.
Marie Brousseau, Catholic Author & Essayist
mariebrousseau.com
It’s amazing that people don’t consider that they will have sudden event such as a heart attack or stroke and need now “assistance”.
The four stages of the propagation of novel evils.
1.) Opprobrium
2.) Oddity
3.) Option
4.) Obligation
Often the passage from Stage 3 to Stage 4 is swift and seemless, as the “option” becomes increasing selected through social expectation or pressure. Suicide is at No. 3 in Canada and will soon be No. 4.
The promise of “free” healthcare made to the vast throngs of the economically illiterate who think the government is a cornucopia will be behind this- because sooner or later, governments look to limit their expenditures-there isn’t an infinite number of doctors, nurses or hospitals.
Errata:
“no assistance”
Marie, thank you for your work, like Lord Alton, in fighting the good fight.
“King Charles isn’t a crypto Muslim”
You sure are quick to express certitude, but that’s an assertion, not evidence, sorry-or do you not understand “crypto” means concealed?
You should read:
The Islamophilia of King-Charles
it was on a site called “spiked-online”, published 07/22/2025.
Enough with the anachronistic clown show of the privileged parasitic deviants of “British Royalty”, which is more German than English, so much so that there was a plan prosed to make the abdicated Edward VIII the Allied Governor of Germany after the war. Maybe that’s why Harry dressed as Nazi for Halloween once, before emulating his ancestor and entangling himself with a Trollip.
I have family in the UK, Mr Pitchfork. They try to keep me informed about the Royal Family. Yes, I understand what “crypto” Muslim means but I don’t believe it’s the case with King Charles. Crypto Eastern Orthodox? Perhaps.
Thank you for the site information though. I’ll take a look.
It would have helped if your read the item before responding, instead of assuming UK “commoners” have any special insight into the machinations of the “Windsors” the fake name they use.
The EVIDENCE is that to the extent Charles has any true religious sympathies, it lies with Islam in the public conduct of his office.
It’s almost hilarious that he is reported said something to the effect that Orthodoxy was the only Church (Churches?)_”untouched by abhorrent political correctness” three decades ago, given that since he’s said it-Anglicanism-the community he supposedly is the head of-has slipped further into the abyss on which it was founded by a man he does not descend-and thankfully nobody-descends from.
I suspect he’s probably an deist or autotheist and is knows full well that Anglicanism is withering-and he thinks the Muslims will maintain his son and grandson as Kings because of his conciliatory overtures to Islam. In the future, some British monarch will recide the Shahada and Parliament will enact a new Act of Supremacy and where as the 1534 Act severed ties with Catholicism, the new act will abolish the CoE and sever ties with even diluted Christianity.
The uk has been battling this end of life bill for the past two years using social media and people on the ground hounding politicians. The spiritual level has been powerful with masses, Eucharist all night Adoration vigils Mens Rosaries in the cities, pilgrims marching on prayer vigils in Walsingham and throughout the country. Also in Ireland our Catholic Faith is thriving with families and young people reaching out to the traditions of our Apostolic Faith people are hungry for the Eucharist this I believe is the beginning of the Triumph of The Immaculate Heart of Mary through Mother Mary to christ
Marie Brousseau above (5:13 p.m.) – yes.
Also to be noted (and supported): Canadian counter-efforts – Euthanasia Prevention Coalition and Compassionate Community Care.