MPs voice euthanasia concerns
MPs expressed anger this week over proposals to introduce "living wills", allowing mentally incapacitated patients to forbid doctors to intervene to save their lives.
It follows campaigning by some pro-lifers who said that mistakes made before the legalisation of abortion could be repeated over euthanasia.
The Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC) said that the Bill would "enshrine in law euthanasia by neglect".
But David Lammy, the junior constitutional affairs minister, said that the Mental Capacity Bill would not introduce euthanasia by the back door.
Critics in the House of Commons, including former Conservative leader Iain Duncan Smith, disagreed, warning that the Bill would allow euthanasia "by omission" by allowing doctors to withdraw treatment and to permit them to carry out experimental treatments on people even if they were not in patients' direct interests.
MPs of all parties raised concerns about the Bill during a stormy second reading debate.
Under the new Mental Capacity Bill, patients will be able to appoint a relative or friend to take future decisions on their behalf and will allow people with no-one to act for them to leave instructions about their future treatment.
The living wills will allow people to take "powers of attorney" to take decisions about patients' welfare and health. At present people are only allowed to delegate financial decisions.
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