MPs to vote on legalising assisted dying in England and Wales
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MPs to vote on legalising assisted dying in England and Wales
Image source: PA Media
Image caption: The proposal passed the Commons earlier this year but its progress stalled due to opposition in the Lords
By Richard Wheeler, Political reporter, and Tabby Wilson
Published 1 hour ago
The legalisation of assisted dying in England and Wales could move a step closer on Friday when MPs vote on a proposal to introduce it.
The bill would allow adults with fewer than six months to live to apply to be given help to end their own life, subject to certain safeguards.
Labour MP Lauren Edwards, the bill’s sponsor, said there was a "real human cost to the delay" in passing the legislation – but opponents say it lacks sufficient safeguards, particularly for vulnerable people.
The last effort to change the law was supported by MPs but stalled in the House of Lords earlier this year after peers tabled more than 1,200 amendments.
Edwards said she was asking MPs to send the same law "back to the House of Lords so that they can finish what they started".
She said the Lords has an "important role in scrutinising, refining and often improving legislation" sent to them by the Commons, adding: "Let them amend this bill if they choose to and send it back to MPs for a final decision. That is how our democratic decisions are made and what should happen now."
"There is a real human cost to the delay in passing this legislation and correcting the injustices and cruelty of the current law," she added.
Veteran broadcaster Dame Esther Rantzen, a high-profile campaigner for assisted dying, called on MPs to support the bill, saying her own life with terminal cancer had become "unbearable".
The 86-year-old said she was too frail to travel to an assisted suicide clinic in Switzerland as she had planned to, stating: "Everything I didn’t want to happen I’m having to go through now."
Why are MPs voting on assisted dying again?
Published 13 hours ago
Safeguards within the bill include a requirement that a person applying for an assisted death has the approval of two doctors and an expert panel.
But critics say it includes too few measures to protect vulnerable people from being coerced into ending their lives, while some improving palliative care should be the priority.
Labour MP Ashley Dalton said she did not support the bill first time around and it "remains deeply flawed and unsafe". She added: "I have very serious concerns about people, especially vulnerable people, being pressured or coerced into assisted dying. The safeguards within this bill are not enough to support them."
The leader of Catholics in England and Wales, Archbishop Richard Moth, called the proposal "wrong in principle" and "deeply flawed". The Church of England’s Archbishop of Canterbury, Dame Sarah Mullally, wrote in the Telegraph that it would signal "we are a society that believes that some lives are not worth living."
Some medical organisations, including the Royal College of Psychiatrists and the Royal College of Physicians, have also said they have "concerns" about the bill’s built-in guardrails.
Marie Curie, Hospice UK and St Christopher’s hospice charity have all said they are neutral on the principle of assisted dying, but have repeatedly warned that access to quality of end-of-life care is too patchy across the country and the sector is severely lacking in funding.
