UK parliament to consider assisted dying law this month

Nine years after the failure of the last assisted dying bill and amid a change in public opinion, MPs to vote according to their conscience.

The UK parliament will consider a proposal to legalise assisted dying, nine years after rejecting a similar proposal.

Kim Leadbeater, a member of parliament with the ruling Labour party, said she would introduce a bill on October 16 to give terminally ill people a “choice” over end-of-life care and provide more protections for them and their loved ones.

Leadbeater said British law on the issue had not been updated in 60 years.

“Somebody with a terminal condition and very little time left has only limited options,” she wrote in The Guardian newspaper. “Parliament should now be able to consider a change in the law that would offer reassurance and relief – and most importantly, dignity and choice – to people in the last months of their lives.”

Prime Minister Keir Starmer has previously promised a free vote on the bill.

“That means that ministers can vote, or not, however they wish,” Cabinet Secretary Simon Case, the prime minister’s most senior adviser, said. “The Government will therefore remain neutral on the passage of the Bill and on the matter of assisted dying.”

Assisted dying is currently illegal in Britain and if successful, the legislation would affect England and Wales. A bill on the issue was introduced in Scotland, which has a separate legal system, earlier this year.

Some 31 countries and territories allow some form of assisted dying, according to Humanists UK, a group that represents the non-religious.

“Today marks the historic first step in a journey that should lead to one of the most consequential and compassionate reforms in our history, finally giving thousands of suffering people the choice and dignity they desire and deserve,” Humanists’ chief executive, Andrew Copson, said in a statement.

“Parliamentarians will have in front of them vital questions about eligibility, process and safeguards, that it will be the duty of all of society to help them address.”

Euthanasia is currently illegal in the UK, and anyone in England, Wales and Northern Ireland who travels with them to the Dignitas clinic in Switzerland, or stays with someone to comfort them at home as they end their life, could be liable to prosecution for up to 14 years.

Details of the bill have not yet been released, but it is expected to allow terminally ill adults with six months or less to live to get medical assistance to end their own lives, the BBC said.

Growing public support

An assisted dying bill was last debated – and defeated – in the House of Commons in 2015.

But since then, surveys have shown an increase in support for helping terminally ill people end their lives.

High-profile TV broadcaster Esther Rantzen, who has terminal lung cancer, has given the debate renewed impetus after revealing she had joined Dignitas. The clinic helps those with a terminal disease or living with unendurable pain or disability to end their lives.

The Isle of Man and Jersey, self-governing British Crown Dependencies which are not part of the UK, are also moving towards passing their own laws to give terminally ill people the right to die.

In 2002, Belgium and the Netherlands became the first EU countries to allow euthanasia.

In 2021, Spain authorised euthanasia and medically assisted suicide for people with serious and incurable illnesses, while Portugal followed suit two years later.

Canada has expanded provisions on euthanasia and is one of the most permissive countries in the world on the issue.

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Al Jazeera and news agencies