The bill doesn’t require a mental health assessment for a candidate for assisted suicide, or that treatment for any mental health condition be offered, even though severe illness, such as cancer, obviously raises the risk of depression. The lack of safeguards reflects its supporters’ expansive views of when suicide makes sense. Charles Falconer, one of the bill’s leading sponsors in the House of Lords, has argued that “pregnancy should not be a bar” to the procedure. Pressed on the possibility that poor people might choose suicide unaware of the financial support they could receive, he was unfazed: “Your financial position might be an element in what makes you reach a decision.”