That threat, however, could return very soon. Lauren Edwards, the Labour MP for Rochester and Strood, is attempting to reintroduce Kim Leadbeater’s assisted-dying proposals, and its second reading is scheduled for 11 September.   

Leadbeater’s bill failed to overcome multiple concerns over safeguards in the Lords and ultimately fell on that basis.   The attempt to reintroduce the same bill is a forlorn effort to resuscitate a lost cause while Parliament and the country have moved on.   

It is important that Scottish MP’s turn up to vote against this Bill which could simultaneously reverse engineer assisted suicide back on to the agenda in Scotland.   

MPs will be concerned that the Bill offers no opt-outs to Catholic and other faith-based care homes.  If passed it would mean these homes would be forced to close and countless beds lost to those hoping to live their last months supported by their faith communities.   

We don’t need another divisive debate about assisted suicide far more urgent is our national challenge to improve palliative and social care.  In this context the Prime Minister’s recent intervention was both timely and welcome. As he suggests, we have a duty to ensure that every person approaching the end of life has access to the compassionate palliative and social care they deserve. No one should feel driven towards assisted suicide because they lack the care and support they deserve. 

The British population agree.  In a country where one third of our fellow citizens do not get the end of life care they need, two thirds of us polled earlier this year said “it is essential that high-quality hospice and/or palliative care is universally available before any assisted suicide laws are passed”.   

Aware of the myriad risks of assisted suicide, the Scottish Parliament rejected it.  I hope the PM’s intervention will encourage Westminster MPs to reflect carefully before taking a step that would fundamentally change the way our society deals with the sick and vulnerable.   

Perhaps this is an opportunity fundamentally to rethink our whole approach to assisted suicide. The compassionate response to the suffering of our fellow citizens is not to help them end their lives, but to ensure they receive the highest quality care, love and accompaniment they need.   

As well as being a serious threat for the sick, elderly and vulnerable across England and Wales this bill, if enacted in law, would set an invidious precedent for Scotland.

I pray for all who are seriously ill, for their families and carers, but also for those in public office, who have the unenviable weight of important decisions on their minds, that they choose to build a society that goes the extra mile to care for its most vulnerable and uphold the dignity of every human life.   

Bishop John Keenan, President, Bishops Conference of Scotland