In a watershed decision, Members of Parliament from the House of Commons backed a bill to introduce the option of euthanasia (assisted dying) for terminally ill patients, marking a pivotal moment in the history of patients’ rights and palliative care in the United Kingdom.
Following three hours of fervent debate, the vote resulted in a narrow majority of 314 to 291 supporting the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill being passed to the House of Lords for further deliberation.
The legislation, if passed into law, would allow terminally ill (yet mentally competent) adults with less than six months of life expectancy to seek legal medical assistance in ending their lives under meticulously devised guidelines.
Those advocating for the bill hailed it as an admirably compassionate response to unnecessarily difficult suffering.
"This bill is not about choosing death, it's about choosing how to face it when death is already at the door,” explained Conservative MP Kit Malthouse, who supported the bill, as per a BBC report.
Opponents, however, warned of the potential risks and moral implications within the ambiguity of this legislation.
Labour MP Chi Onwura called on colleagues to refrain from backing the bill as it's "without rigour or scrutiny necessary to make assisted dying work in practice", the report added.
Kim Leadbeater and Rachel Hopkins, the co-sponsors of the bill, told the House that it was not about a choice about living and dying, but “a choice for terminally ill people about how they die”, ensuring people "have an element of control over their last days".
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer was also in support of the bill while Kemi Badenoch, the head of the opposition and Labour Party leader, voted against. MPs were expected to follow a ‘free vote’ system: they were expected to make a decision unprejudiced by party coercion.
Under the proposed framework, the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill lets terminally ill adults end their lives if they:
1) Are over 18 living in England or Wales, and have been registered with a General Practitioner for at least 12 months
2) Have the mental capacity to make the choice and are deemed to have expressed a clear, settled and informed wish, free from coercion or pressure
3) Are expected to die within six months
4) Make two separate declarations, witnessed and signed, about their wish to die
5) Satisfy two independent doctors that they are eligible, with at least seven days between each assessment
Once an application has been approved, the patient would have to wait 14 days before proceeding. A doctor would prepare the unspecified substance used to end the patient's life, but the person would take it themselves.
The Bill defines the co-ordinating doctor as a registered medical practitioner with "training, qualifications and experience", at a level to be specified by the health secretary, also highlighting that it would be illegal to coerce someone into declaring they wanted to end their life, with a possible 14-year prison sentence.
If passed by the House of Lords, this legislation will place the UK among a growing list of countries that have legalised euthanasia under specific conditions, such as Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Austria, Belgium, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, and Switzerland.
