UK justice secretary attacks assisted dying bill as ‘state death service’

Shabana Mahmood has written to her constituents saying she is profoundly concerned' about Friday's Commons vote

MPs will be placing the country on a slippery slope towards death on demand" if they back legislation on assisted dying in England and Wales this week, the lord chancellor and justice secretary, Shabana Mahmood, has said in a letter to constituents before a historic Commons vote on Friday.

Mahmood has received numerous letters about the bill from people in her Birmingham Ladywood seat, which has a big Muslim population, and sent out replies saying that she was profoundly concerned" about the legislation, not only for religious reasons but also because of what it would mean for the role of the state if one of its functions became helping people to die.