MPs are considering making it legal for terminally ill people to get medical assistance to end their life
Demonstrators, including Humanists UK’s members and supporters, during a protest outside the Houses of Parliament in London to call for reform The proposals, put forward by Labour MP Kim Leadbeater, would allow terminally ill people with less than six months to live to seek medical assistance to end their life,, meaning they can vote based on their conscience rather than along party lines, and there are reports that over 130 MPs have requested to speak in the debate.
“It has to be an argument about individual choice and moral principle. It cannot be an argument about money.” “Good palliative care can remove the concerns that people will have a difficult death, instead providing people with the pain relief, care and support necessary to have a ‘good death’,” she continued.last month that thought needed to be given to how such a “fundamental change” would impact the sector while it was “already under really significant stress”.
A report published in January by the group and the APPG for hospice and end-of-life care also warned that the current funding model for the sector was “not fit for purpose.”Many MPs supportive of the legislation have stated that their vote is conditional on the process of assisted dying having strong safeguards to protect against coercion and misuse.
“I believe the safeguards against pressure, coercion and dishonesty are flawed, and I do not believe they will work,” he said. However, Sally Talbot, an MP in the Parliament of Western Australia, where assisted dying has been legal since 2021, told reporters that they had seen little evidence of coercion of this kind.
Belgium legalised assisted dying for terminally ill adults in 2002 but has since expanded its laws to cover under-18s in exceptional circumstances. The briefing document also argued that several legal challenges to the blanket ban on assisted dying have been brought to the UK courts, and none have succeeded, which Leadbeater suggested was proof that the courts could not intervene in the UK to expand the scope of assisted dying.
He warned that such bills “don’t get anywhere near the same level of scrutiny and debate as the bills put forward by the government – and legalising assisted dying is far from a straightforward issue”. “At second reading, the first bill down for second reading can be debated for as long as could be expected on a Government bill, with at least the same opportunities for many backbenchers to participate. The public bill committee can scrutinise a bill for as many sittings as it wishes on days of its own choosing,” he said.
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