United Kingdom to consider ‘historic’ bill to legalise assisted dying

The practice is currently illegal in England and Wales and carries a maximum prison sentence of 14 years. File
| Photo Credit: Reuters

British lawmakers will soon consider whether to give terminally ill adults a choice to end their own lives with medical assistance, in the first parliamentary move to legalise assisted dying in almost a decade.

Proponents of assisted dying say public opinion on the highly emotive issue has been changing since lawmakers voted against a similar bill in 2015 and that mentally competent, terminally ill adults with six months or fewer left to live deserve to choose whether to end their lives.

The practice is currently illegal in England and Wales and carries a maximum prison sentence of 14 years. Those who accompany relatives choosing euthanasia in places like Switzerland, where it has been legal since 1942, could face prosecution in Britain for assisting suicide.

In recent years, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and some U.S. states have legalised assisted dying, or euthanasia, in varying degrees.

The new legislation, which has not been published yet, will be presented to Parliament on October 16 by Labour Party lawmaker Kim Leadbeater. She won a ballot giving her the right to try to pass a bill on a subject of her choice and confirmed on Thursday (October 3, 2024) that she would present one on legalising assisted dying.

While it does not have government backing, Prime Minister Keir Starmer, whose Labour Party won an election in July, promised earlier this year to give lawmakers a free vote, meaning they won’t be ordered to vote in any particular way.

Cabinet Secretary Simon Case said in a letter to ministers that they would also not be told how to vote.

The law would apply to England and Wales if passed through the full process of legislative scrutiny by both houses of parliament, which could take several months. Scotland’s devolved parliament is considering similar legislation.

“I … strongly believe that we should give people facing the most unbearable end to their life a choice about what that end is like,” Ms. Leadbeater wrote in The Guardian newspaper.

Research published by Savanta on Friday (October 4, 2024) showed that Britons were more than twice as likely to support assisted dying rather than oppose it. Polling of 2,000 people showed 48% supported it, 21% opposed it, 22% say they neither support nor oppose it and the rest don’t know.

“This is a historic opportunity to bring about real change for dying people … The mood in Westminster has shifted dramatically, at last catching up with public opinion,” said Sarah Wootton, head of the campaign group Dignity in Dying.