Assisted dying could be legalised in England and Wales after a historic vote saw proposed legislation clear its first hurdle in Parliament. A majority of MPs supported a Bill that would allow terminally ill adults with a life expectancy of less than six months to end their lives.
There were at-times emotional scenes in the Commons as politicians on both sides of the debate made impassioned arguments for and against what has been described as a “major social reform”. Encouraging or assisting suicide is currently against the law in England and Wales, with a maximum jail sentence of 14 years.
MPs voted 330 to 275, majority 55, to approve Kim Leadbeater’s Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill at second reading. Opposition and pro-change campaigners had gathered outside Parliament from early on Friday.
The four-and-a-half-hour debate in the Commons heard arguments from MPs about a need to give choice to dying people. Labour MP Ms Leadbeater insisted her Bill has strict safeguards against coercion and said a new law would give society “a much better approach towards end of life”.
She insisted the approach was not that assisted dying would be a substitute for palliative care, but that when it cannot meet the needs of a dying person “the choice of an assisted death should be one component of a holistic approach to end-of-life care”.
Conservative former minister Andrew Mitchell revealed he had “completely changed my mind” on assisted dying, having found himself with “tears pouring down my face” on hearing the stories of constituents whose loved ones had died “in great pain and great indignity”.
But Conservative MP Danny Kruger, lead MP for opponents of the Bill, said he believed Parliament can do “better” for terminally ill people than a “state suicide service”.
Mr Kruger’s mother, Great British Bake Off judge Dame Prue Leith has been vocal in her support for legalisation of assisted dying. Mr Kruger branded the Bill “too flawed”, while Labour MP Rachael Maskell said the proposed legislation is the “wrong and rushed answer to a complex problem”, and “falls woefully short on safeguarding patients”.
The Bill will next go to committee stage where MPs can table amendments, before facing further scrutiny and votes in both the House of Commons and the House of Lords, meaning any change in the law would not be agreed until next year at the earliest. Ms Leadbeater has said it would likely be a further two years from then for an assisted dying service to be in place.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer voted in favour of the assisted dying legislation, parliamentary voting data shows.
Dame Esther Rantzen, who is terminally ill and has argued strongly for a change in the law, said she was “absolutely thrilled” with the result of the vote.
She told the PA news agency: “I listened to the debate and it was very deeply felt. Members of Parliament, whether they opposed it or proposed it, had obviously given it a great deal of thought, and right up to the end of the debate, I had no idea whether it would be voted through or not. So I’m absolutely thrilled with the results.”