MPs vote in favour of historic assisted dying bill
By Connor Steel
ASSISTED DYING could become legal across England and Wales after a muchly anticipated private member’s bill was narrowly backed by MPs on a historic vote on Friday afternoon (November 29); thus marking a “significant moment” for this subject following an emotionally charged and robust five hour debate held within the House of Commons Chamber.
This bill was proposed by Labour MP Kim Leadbeater and was the first debate on the subject since 2015, which hoped to legalise terminally ill adults receiving medical assistance to end their own life. It passed the second reading stage by a majority of fifty-five with 330 MPs supporting the text at this stage; whilst 275 members chose to reject the legislation.
Full details from the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill stated that people must be terminally ill, have mental capacity and are in the final six months of life to be eligible. If met, two doctors must sign off on the criteria before a formal legal application is then forwarded to the High Court and two week reflection period granted to each patient in case of doubt.
If the bill was to become full law, patients must make two individual declarations and earn approval from the High Court before any “life-ending approved substances” would be prescribed. It would be self-administered and it will be illegal to be pressured to a decision whilst another safeguard means that people must have lived in England or Wales for 1 year.
Concerns were however raised about vulnerable people being coerced and that passing the bill could begin the path to a “slippery slope of death on demand”. There was also debate about whether focus could instead be put on areas such as palliative care and improving treatments for patients alongside impacts that the bill could have on the health service.
This emotional debate was concluded at approximately 2:10pm with all MPs given a free vote upon the issue, meaning that no party lines were followed and the Government stayed neutral in a similar way to 2015. A division was then held by MPs with a full list of votes released shortly after the result was announced just before 2:30pm to a muted response.
A “division list” shows that Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer backed this bill along with Rishi Sunak, Rachel Reeves, Lee Anderson and Jeremy Hunt; thus reflecting the freedoms of this vote. High profile figures further chose to reject the bill including Nigel Farage, Wes Streeting, Kemi Badenoch, Diane Abbott and Sir Ed Davey whilst 46 didn’t register a vote.
There was also mixed opinions across local representatives with Dame Caroline Dinenage voting for the bill and Suella Braverman deciding to reject the legislation. The two MPs have since released short videos on social media about their decisions on the bill which will move onto the next stages of Parliamentary process that could take 6 months to finalise.
It will be open to “open to amendments and will be open to scrutiny” with the two Houses of Parliament now required to approve the bill into law. This is expected to run until the summer of 2025 with future stages needing scrutiny and votes to progress, whilst an eighteen month “implementation period” is needed if the controversial legislation did become law.
Readers are encouraged to explore media links like BBC News, Sky News and ITV News for fresh developing updates on this breaking story; whilst they can track this bill legislation through its Parliamentary journey via this online web link.
PICTURED BY ALAMY (2YPBJCD): MPs gather to hear huge result of historic assisted dying vote on Friday afternoon.
