The decision means England and Wales are one step closer to giving terminally ill patients the choice to end their own life.
This afternoon it has been revealed that the majority of Labour MPs have voted in favour of passing the assisted dying bill, a legislation that offers terminally ill patients in England and Wales, with less than six months left to live, a choice to end their own life.
In the historic vote, which was brought forward by Kim Leadbeater, 314 ministers backed the legislation, while 219 sided against it.
When opening the debate, Leadbeater said that now was as good a time as any to ‘correct the profound injustices of the status quo and to offer a compassionate and safe choice to terminally ill people who want to make it.’
However, foreign secretary James Cleverly does not share the same view. He opened the discussion for the opposing party and said he rejected the bill because the right safeguards were not in place.
‘We were promised the gold standard, a judicially underpinned set of protections and safeguards,’ Cleverly explained. ‘I disagree with [Leadbeater’s] assessment that it is now or never, and it is this bill or no bill, and that to vote against this at third reading is a vote to maintain the status quo. None of those things are true.’
Although the majority of MPs in the House of Commons have sided with the decision to pass the legislation, the bill’s future remains uncertain. The assisted dying bill is set to go to the House of Lords next, where a number of revisions could be made. The bill will also be sent back to Commons before discussions regarding Royal Assent can even begin.
Labour peer Charlie Falconer is due to take over shepherding the bill and she has said she hopes it will receive Royal Assent by October.
Despite this, there will be no provision in place for at least the next few years. The government and the NHS have been given four years to implement the bill. Confirmation on whether the NHS would provide the service, or private providers, is yet to be given.
As it stands, the bill states that terminally ill patients who want to end their life must be of a sound mind and MPs have rejected an amendment that would have stopped anyone accessing the service on the basis of feeling like too much of a burden to loved ones. What’s more, criminal sanctions have been introduced for family members that are found to be coercing someone to choose to end their life.
Leadbeater said: ‘We have a system where it is legal to starve yourself to death, which can take days or weeks, but it is not legal to seek assistance from a doctor, to take an approved substance yourself, to end your pain or suffering and take back control in your dying days.
‘It simply does not make sense.’
Photo by Chris Lawton via UnSplash
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