A bill to legalise assisted dying for terminally ill adults in England and Wales has been formally introduced in the House of Commons, triggering what is expected to be intense discussion over the coming weeks and months on an emotionally charged and controversial issue.
MPs will hold their first debate on the Labour MP Kim Leadbeater’s private member’s bill on 29 November. They will be given a free vote on the bill, meaning they can vote according to individual conscience.
The text of the terminally ill adults (end of life) bill has not been published, but its title states that it would “allow adults who are terminally ill, subject to safeguards and protections, to request and be provided with assistance to end their own life”.
The bill is expected to propose that assisted dying be restricted to mentally competent adults with six months or less to live, although a 12-month prognosis is also a possibility. The details will be published in the coming weeks before the Commons debate.
As Leadbeater introduced her bill, supporters and opponents of assisted dying gathered outside parliament. Organisations opposed to changing the law on assisted dying – including Christian Concern, the Christian Medical Fellowship and the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children – called on MPs to “kill the bill, not the ill”.
Dr Gordon Macdonald, the chief executive of Care Not Killing, said the bill “sends a dog-whistle message to the terminally ill, vulnerable, elderly and disabled people, especially those on low or fixed incomes, that their lives are worth less than others”. He called for more focus on improving access to palliative care.
My Death, My Decision, which campaigns for a change in the law, said the introduction of the bill was a “significant and long-awaited step” to “end the inhumane blanket ban on assisted dying”. But it said the bill would exclude most people with conditions such as Parkinson’s, Huntington’s and multiple sclerosis from having the option of an assisted death.
Earlier, Justin Welby, the archbishop of Canterbury, said the bill was “dangerous” and that in “every other place where it’s been done, [it] has led to a slippery slope”.
Leadbeater said such concerns would be invalid with the right legislation. “We’ve got the benefit in this country of looking at what other countries have done. And I’m very clear, based on what I’ve seen so far and the research that I’ve done, that if we get this right from the start, which some places have done, places like Oregon and certain states in Australia, we have very strict criteria, then those jurisdictions do not broaden out the criteria,” she told ITV’s Good Morning Britain.
If the bill clears its first hurdle next month, it will face line-by-line examination in committee and further Commons votes before being sent to the Lords where the process begins again. Any change in the law would not be agreed until next year at the earliest.
A poll of more than 7,000 people this month found that almost three-quarters agreed that adults “who are intolerably suffering from an incurable condition and who wish to end their lives” should be allowed medical help to do so. It was conducted by Electoral Calculus for Humanists UK, a campaign group that supports assisted dying.
