By Kim Samuel

Today, the House of Lords faces a grave responsibility. Its second reading of the Assisted Dying Bill is not just another parliamentary exercise.

It is the final debate on the most consequential change to Britain’s moral and legal framework since the abolition of capital punishment.

Members of Parliament have already deliberated the principle with care and compassions, on both sides of the debate, and chosen to allow assisted dying. That decision now stands.

Peers are not asked to reopen the argument but to ensure that the law’s safeguards are as strong, as detailed, and as humane as possible. Because if they fail, the stakes could not be higher.

And one area demands more scrutiny: social isolation.

When people are cut off from relationships, housing, or care, loneliness can become a reason to die. That possibility should chill us all.

I write as a Canadian, where medical assistance in dying (MAID) was legalized in 2016 and expanded in 2021 to those not facing imminent death. Public support remains strong, but the lessons are complex.

A recent review of deaths in Ontario found several cases in which people qualified not because of untreatable medical decline but because of “unmet social needs”, such as isolation, poverty, or fear of homelessness. One........

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