The Assisted Dying Bill: what does it mean for the UK?
The UK Parliament has recently voted on a new bill to legalise assisted dying, also known as physician-assisted suicide. After an emotional debate in the House of Commons, the bill has made its way to the Committee Stage with a vote of 330 to 275.
As a Private Member’s Bill, sponsored by Labour MP Kim Leadbeater, the bill was set out to be given far less parliamentary time, and was deemed unlikely to be passed into law. However, the bill was debated for four hours in the House of Commons, and received a majority vote, making it a historic victory for non-minister MPs.
If the bill passes through the Commons’ second reading, the House of Lords and the Royal Assessment, then assisted dying will become legal in the UK under certain guidelines. There are fifteen safeguards in place, compared to current legislation, which only has two safeguards and does nothing to protect adults who ‘illegally’ take their own lives, or their families. The new bill states that UK adults must fit in certain parameters to qualify to seek an assisted death: they must be terminally ill (not including disability and mental illness) with less than six months left to live, deemed to have mental capacity by two doctors, have been informed of other palliative care options, have a High Court judge sign off on their case, and have the ability to self-administer medication provided by a pharmacy that will legally end their life.
Currently, 348 terminally ill adults per year ‘illegally’ end their own lives. Assistance from somebody else for this to happen is illegal, with no protection against abuse. If someone is believed to be involved in an assisted death, there is an investigation, and people can be prosecuted. However, this current law neither prevents people from ending their own lives, nor protects those who do so. Additionally, in Switzerland, where assisted dying is legal, one Briton is assisted in ending their life every two weeks.
The bill has faced both very strong support and very strong opposition. Left-wing Labour MPs Zarah Sultana and Jeremy Corbyn both opposed the bill, with Sultana stating that there were “profound risks for disabled individuals”, expressing concern that marginalised individuals would be coerced into opting for an assisted death. Sultana argued that with a healthcare system under “immense strain,” assisted dying would risk exacerbating inequalities. She described how with better safeguards and more funding to palliative care, she would be willing to reconsider voting in favour of assisted dying in the future. MPs who voted in favour of the bill included Green Party leader Carla Denyer and Prime Minister Keir Starmer. Denyer stated that the bill was “about enabling people to choose a good death in the face of the terrible suffering that terminal illness can cause,” showing the viewpoint that the assisted dying is compassionate rather than oppressive.
Despite arguments that the bill will oppress the marginalised, and decreases the value placed on palliative care, in this case, the merits have outweighed the cons in the House of Commons. Many argue that the bill is an extension of the concept of “my body, my choice” attributed to abortion, as it gives people the ability to have full choice over their own healthcare and how it will impact their life. The debate in the Commons was emotional, with MPs sharing personal stories of their own terminally ill relatives and how painful it was to watch them suffer when death was certain. The bill aims to give people the choice of not delaying the inevitable, and instead, ending prolonged suffering and pain.
Sources:
https://bills.parliament.uk/bills/3774
Zarah Sultana’s statement on assisted dying on her Instagram page
https://cdn.dignityindying.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/Research_Safeguards_WEB.pdf