LONDON - Britain’s parliament has voted in favour of a new bill to legalise assisted dying, paving the way for months of further debate on an issue that has divided the country and raised questions about the standard of palliative care.
After five hours of impassioned debate on Friday in the House of Commons, MPs voted by 330-275 to support a plan that would allow people with a terminal illness, who are expected to live no more than six months, to be helped to die.
The vote is far from the final word on the legislation, because it will now be scrutinised in parliamentary committees and amendments may be put forward as it makes its way through both the Commons and the House of Lords.
Kim Leadbeater, the Labour lawmaker who introduced the bill, has said she expects the process to take a further six months.
The bill has sparked a national conversation over dignity in death and end-of-life care, with emotions running high on both sides.
If parliament sees the bill through the full legislative process, Britain would follow other countries such as Australia, Canada and some US states in launching what would be one of its biggest social reforms in a generation.
The “Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life)” bill would allow mentally competent, terminally ill adults in England and Wales assessed by doctors to have six months or less left to live, the right to choose to end their lives with medical help.
Those in favour of the bill argue it is about shortening the death of those who are terminally ill and giving them more control.
“Let’s be clear, we are not talking about a choice between life or death. We are talking about giving dying people a choice of how to die,” Leadbeater said.
But opponents believe vulnerable, ill people will feel they should end their lives for fear of being a burden to their families and society, rather than for their own wellbeing. (Story continues below)
Opponents of the assisted dying law express their view outside Parliament in London. (Photo: Reuters)
Supporters and opponents of assisted dying demonstrated outside parliament, reflecting the strength of feeling over a subject that has split the country nearly a decade after the last attempt to change the law was voted down.
“This is not about killing off people who are not wanted in society,” said Emma Hobbs, 54, a former nurse who was holding photographs of her father outside parliament. She said he had died in agony.
“It’s about letting your loved ones have their own wish.”
The proposal has stirred a national debate, with former prime ministers, faith leaders, medics, judges, the disabled and ministers in Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s government weighing in on the subject.
One group of demonstrators outside parliament held up banners saying: “Don’t make doctors killers”. Large advertisements in the nearby Westminster transport station said: “My dying wish is my family won’t see me suffer. And I won’t have to.”
Polls suggest a majority of Britons back assisted dying and Leadbeater said the law needed to catch up with public opinion.
Ahead of Friday’s vote, some lawmakers said the current proposal lacks detail and needs to be underpinned by more research to study the legal and financial implications of a change to the law.
“If I voted for this bill, I would have on my conscience many more people whose voices we cannot hear,” said Conservative MP Danny Kruger, an opponent. “The people who would be vulnerable in consequence of the huge changes that this bill would induce in our society.
“By all means, let’s have this debate, but we should be having it before the bill of this magnitude is brought, and the process of the bill should be much more comprehensive.”
Critics say that safeguards introduced around assisted dying have later been loosened, for instance in Canada, where the legalisation initially for terminally ill patients was expanded to those with incurable conditions.
Leadbeater said the system would be “nothing like happens in Canada”, adding: “It has strict, stringent criteria, and if this house (of Commons, lower house of parliament) chooses to pass this bill, that criteria cannot be changed.”
After five hours of impassioned debate on Friday in the House of Commons, MPs voted by 330-275 to support a plan that would allow people with a terminal illness, who are expected to live no more than six months, to be helped to die.
The vote is far from the final word on the legislation, because it will now be scrutinised in parliamentary committees and amendments may be put forward as it makes its way through both the Commons and the House of Lords.
Kim Leadbeater, the Labour lawmaker who introduced the bill, has said she expects the process to take a further six months.
The bill has sparked a national conversation over dignity in death and end-of-life care, with emotions running high on both sides.
If parliament sees the bill through the full legislative process, Britain would follow other countries such as Australia, Canada and some US states in launching what would be one of its biggest social reforms in a generation.
The “Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life)” bill would allow mentally competent, terminally ill adults in England and Wales assessed by doctors to have six months or less left to live, the right to choose to end their lives with medical help.
Those in favour of the bill argue it is about shortening the death of those who are terminally ill and giving them more control.
“Let’s be clear, we are not talking about a choice between life or death. We are talking about giving dying people a choice of how to die,” Leadbeater said.
But opponents believe vulnerable, ill people will feel they should end their lives for fear of being a burden to their families and society, rather than for their own wellbeing. (Story continues below)
Opponents of the assisted dying law express their view outside Parliament in London. (Photo: Reuters)
Supporters and opponents of assisted dying demonstrated outside parliament, reflecting the strength of feeling over a subject that has split the country nearly a decade after the last attempt to change the law was voted down.
“This is not about killing off people who are not wanted in society,” said Emma Hobbs, 54, a former nurse who was holding photographs of her father outside parliament. She said he had died in agony.
“It’s about letting your loved ones have their own wish.”
The proposal has stirred a national debate, with former prime ministers, faith leaders, medics, judges, the disabled and ministers in Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s government weighing in on the subject.
One group of demonstrators outside parliament held up banners saying: “Don’t make doctors killers”. Large advertisements in the nearby Westminster transport station said: “My dying wish is my family won’t see me suffer. And I won’t have to.”
Polls suggest a majority of Britons back assisted dying and Leadbeater said the law needed to catch up with public opinion.
Ahead of Friday’s vote, some lawmakers said the current proposal lacks detail and needs to be underpinned by more research to study the legal and financial implications of a change to the law.
“If I voted for this bill, I would have on my conscience many more people whose voices we cannot hear,” said Conservative MP Danny Kruger, an opponent. “The people who would be vulnerable in consequence of the huge changes that this bill would induce in our society.
“By all means, let’s have this debate, but we should be having it before the bill of this magnitude is brought, and the process of the bill should be much more comprehensive.”
Critics say that safeguards introduced around assisted dying have later been loosened, for instance in Canada, where the legalisation initially for terminally ill patients was expanded to those with incurable conditions.
Leadbeater said the system would be “nothing like happens in Canada”, adding: “It has strict, stringent criteria, and if this house (of Commons, lower house of parliament) chooses to pass this bill, that criteria cannot be changed.”
