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Just re-reading this and is your point actually that MPs with religious beliefs shouldn’t make decisions based on their religious beliefs?
That itself is quite a complex debate!
JamesQGM-
It's slightly different with a free vote but in general, yes. I vote for an MP based on the legislative agenda proposed by the party they're a member of. Their religion should not come into it.
I think Tim Fallon should be the model here. He was part of a school of faith which believed that gay sex was a sin; personally I think that's a contemptible belief. However he consistently voted in favour of gay rights because he recognised that what put him in power was his constituents, and they expected him to have their back, and enact the policy platform he was elected on. I think that's the right approach.
With a free vote, it's slightly different as MPs represent their constituents by using their own judgement, which will necessarily include their religious background. But I think it's uncontentious to think that judgements arrived at through evidence and experience are more likely to reflect reality than those arrived at through religious doctrine.
My real beef with this debate is the dishonesty. We have religious MPs who object to the bill due to their faith failing to be honest about that, and instead dressing up their concerns as purely technical or practical. If an MP cannot separate their faith from their judgement on this issue - and I understand why they couldn't - they should at the very least be honest about that. I don't think a single religious MP has been honest about that so far (in fact some have been quite aggressive about it when people suggest their religion may play a part in their objection) but by an enormous co-incidence they've all been against the bill on 'technical' grounds. What a shocker.
ReekBlefs
There are good reasons to vote against assisted dying but I don't think there's any good reason why the religious or ideological beliefs of person X should determine the legislative freedoms available to person Y, who does not share them.
To put a crude example, if you're anti-abortion because of your religion, I respect that, and you should be free to choose not to have an abortion - no-one should force you to have one. But that is a two way street. Your religious beliefs should not prevent others, who do not share your religion, from having an abortion, should they choose to do so.
This is a basic principle of a secular society.