Johnson Troubled by UK Vote on Assisted Dying

WASHINGTON — House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., on Wednesday took the rare step of criticizing lawmakers in the United Kingdom just days after the British House of Commons voted to legalize assisted dying.

Stressing his opinions were his own, “a point of personal privilege,” Johnson described Friday, the day of the 330-275-vote on the euthanasia legislation, as “a sad and shameful day for the English speaking world wide.”

“It’s an ancient truth that medicine should always heal and never harm, but the United Kingdom just joined Canada in twisting that definition of medicine and codifying the Orwellian language of assisted death into law,” the speaker said.

Assisted dying has long been a contentious issue in Great Britain and the vote in the House of Commons came after hours of rancorous debate in the chamber.

The bill must still clear the House of Lords and a number of parliamentary committees, but Friday’s vote was seen by its advocates as clearing the most important hurdle.

The bill would allow people with a terminal condition and less than six months to live to take a drug or drug cocktail to end their lives.

It also includes guardrails — a requirement that the terminal ill person be capable of making the decision for themselves, and another provision that says two doctors and a High Court judge must sign off on the decision before the patient’s wishes are carried out.

The patient must then administer the lethal drugs themselves.

If the bill advances and becomes law, the United Kingdom will join Canada, New Zealand, Spain and most of Australia in allowing some form of assisted dying.

It is also legal here in 10 states and the District of Columbia.

“America has always stood out as a beacon, as a shining city on a hill,” said Johnson, who before addressing the British vote had been in a generally light-hearted, holiday season mood.

“We’ve stood out in this regard,” he said. “Our Declaration [of Independence] makes the bold proclamation, the acknowledgement … that life is a gift from our creator.

“Our founders called it a ‘self-evident’ truth that all of us are made equally by our creator, and that he’s the one that gives us our rights,” he continued, adding, “Any society that rejects that truth about life as a gift from our creator and adopts a culture of death is a society that is in the process of crumbling.

“So-called ‘assisted death’ endangers the weak and marginalized in society and it corrupts medicine and it erodes our obligations to family,” he said.

Johnson went on to say that he hopes the people of the United Kingdom “will work, through democratic means, to reverse this legislation.”

“As speaker of the House, I want to say that House Republicans are committed to rejecting socialized medicine and the nanny state and that we will promote and respect every life, no matter how old or sick or weak those persons may be,” he said.

Johnson was asked whether “assisted death” should remain a state decision in the United States or whether he believed the federal government should take action to prevent such legislation from being adopted in other states.

“Well, I can tell you that the action in the U.K. brings [the issue] to the forefront and it’s something that we’ve been watching for years,” he said. “I suspect it will be part of the dialogue going forward, but we don’t have any legislation planned at the moment that I know of. …

“I do think we need to stand up for the respect for life … that’s an important thing to me, and I think it’s an important thing to a lot of my colleagues, so we’ll see what happens,” Johnson said.

Dan can be reached at [email protected] and @DanMcCue