UK assisted suicide bill makes coercion and deception easier.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

Aine Fox reported for the Independent (UK) on October 23, 2025 that a retired judge is concerned that the UK assisted suicide bill, that has already passed in the House of Commons and is now being debated in the House of Lords, will make coercion easier because the coroner will not investigate these deaths:

Retired Judge Thomas Teague told peers at a House of Lords select committee that the current draft legislation to legalise assisted dying risks making coercion easier and for some cases to ” slip through” if coroners are not involved as the default.

Fox reported that:

The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill currently states that an assisted death would not be classified as an “unnatural death” and therefore would not require automatic investigation by a coroner.

The Royal College of Pathologists and Mr Teague have previously voiced their opposition to this element of the Bill and both gave further evidence to peers on Thursday.

Teague is concerned that the language of the law will lead to coercion, pressure and deception.

He warned that categorising assisted deaths, which he said “are in reality, deaths by suicide”, as natural deaths could have the “unfortunate and unintended consequence of tending to obscure and conceal those risks, and of making it easier for persons who want, for example, to exercise coercion or pressure or deception to do so”.

Teague stated that the assisted suicide bill reversed 200 years of scrutiny.

He said clause 38 of the Bill as it stands was effectively reversing part of a system for scrutinising deaths that had been 200 years in the making and described the proposed approach as “frankly absurd”.

Fox reported that Dr Suzy Lishman form the Royal College of Pathologists agreed with Teague:

Dr Suzy Lishman, from the Royal College of Pathologists, when asked about whether it would be safe to remove coronial oversight, told the committee: “No, I don’t believe it would be safe.”

The House of Lords Select Committee is examining the Kim Leadbeater assisted suicide bill. The House of Lords Committee will make recommendations and possible amendments before they to to a final vote on the bill.

More information about the UK assisted suicide bill (Articles Link).