UK's assisted dying bill soon to be reality? MPs give nod, if passed from House of Lords, what would it mean

Britain made a historic move towards legalising euthanasia on Friday (June 20) as Members of Parliament (MPs) supported a contentious bill that would enact assisted dying for those who are terminally ill. Members of Parliament voted 314 to 291 in the House of Commons to send the proposal to the House of Lords for further review, after four hours of tearful debate.

The vote sparked jubilation among supporters who had rallied outside Parliament, saying they believed that legalising euthanasia would provide choice and dignity for individuals with incurable illnesses near the end of their lives. Meanwhile, protesters at a counter-demonstration outside offered concerns that vulnerable patients might be coerced into taking the option of death and urged lawmakers to focus instead on enhancing palliative care.

The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill would permit assisted suicide in England and Wales for terminally ill adults with less than six months to live. Individuals would have to administer the life-ending drug themselves, and their choice would have to be approved by two doctors and an expert panel. If enacted, the bill would align Britain with a number of European and other countries — including Belgium and the Netherlands — that have already legalized some aspect of assisted dying.

Labour MP Kim Leadbeater, who introduced the bill, said in Friday's third reading debate that amending the law would "provide a compassionate and safe option" for terminally ill individuals. She contended that maintaining the existing prohibition would lead to additional "heartbreaking stories" of "pain and trauma, suicide attempts, PTSD, lonely journeys to Switzerland, (and) police investigations."

Labour MP Vicky Foxcroft, however, had concerns that the bill lacked robust enough measures to safeguard disabled people. We need to safeguard these individuals who are vulnerable to coercion, who already feel that society doesn't care for them, who too often feel like a burden to the state, to society and to their family," she said.

Outside Parliament, protesters carried signs reading "Let us choose" and "Don't make doctors killers. David Walker, 82, testified about his own experience of advocating for the bill after he watched his wife struggle for three years at the end of her life.

"That's why I'm here, because I can't help her anymore, but I can help other people who are going through the same thing, because if you have no quality of life, you have nothing," he was quoted saying to AFP.

But physician Elizabeth Burden, aged 52, cautioned that the bill could create a "slippery slope" that would open assisted dying to more and more people. "Once we open the door for this. Everything will slide down because dementia patients, all patients. are vulnerable," she was quoted saying to AFP.

MPs had originally supported an earlier draft of the bill in November by 330 votes to 275. There have been a number of changes since then, such as a prohibition on advertising assisted dying and measures to permit all healthcare professionals to opt out of involvement. Legislators also included a provision to rule out eligibility "alone because of abstaining from eating or drinking, voluntarily," essentially excluding instances such as individuals with anorexia.

Britain's medical establishment is still divided, and Prime Minister Keir Starmer's cabinet is also divided. His health and justice secretaries have also come out publicly against the bill. But support for it is high among the public. A YouGov survey of 2,003 adults, carried out in the last month and released on Thursday, revealed that 73 per cent of those polled backed the establishment of an assisted dying law.

The legislation is now passed to the House of Lords, which has to rubber-stamp the law by the end of the current parliamentary session, possibly in the autumn, or else it will expire. If enacted and passed royal assent, the legislation would take some four years to come into effect before assisted dying services would be available.

An estimate this month by a government impact assessment put the number of assisted deaths in the first year at 160 to 640, which could reach 4,500 in a decade.

Assisted suicide is presently outlawed in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, with a maximum sentence of 14 years. At the same time, another assisted dying bill is making its way through the devolved Scottish Parliament. In March, the Isle of Man became the first British region to approve an assisted dying bill.