Supporters and opponents of assisted dying are gearing up for a series of landmark votes on Friday when legislation giving terminally ill people the right to end their life returns to the Commons. It follows a vote in the Scottish Parliament which backed similar laws, but the campaign for the right to die suffered a setback when the Royal College of Psychiatrists said it cannot back the Westminster Bill in its current form.
MPs will debate amendments including changes proposed by Kim Leadbeater, the Labour MP championing the legislation, which are designed to reassure critics by introducing further safeguards. However critics hope to add restrictions, including a ban on doctors telling patients that assisted dying is an option.
The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill was last debated in the main Chamber of the Commons in November, when MPs backed it by 330 votes to 275. It was then considered by a smaller committee of MPs, which made changes including ensuring patients looking to end their life were given information about alternatives such as pain relief.
It now returns for a full debate and MPs will be able to propose further changes. The proposed Bill already ensures no doctor is under an obligation to hold a formal discussion about assisted dying with a patient, although they would need to direct the patient to another source of information. Ms Leadbeater is proposing an amendment that would extend this safeguard to all medical professionals, such as pharmacists. She is also proposing a ban on advertising assisted dying services.
However, other MPs including former Home Office Minister Meg Hillier, are proposing that the law should ban doctors from raising the possibility of assisted dying unless the patient mentions it first. According to supporters of the legislation, this would effectively remove the choice from some terminally ill people.
Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle will decide which amendments are debated. Ms Leadbeater had hoped that a final Commons vote on the legislation would take place on the same day, but it is thought Sir Lindsay will rule that this should happen at a later date, likely to be June 13.
The MP welcomed a vote in Scotland’s Holyrood Parliament which backed a similar law by 70 votes to 56 in favour. She said: “I’m pleased that after a lengthy, constructive and compassionate debate, the Scottish Parliament has voted in principle in favour of changing the law to address the injustices in the current ban on assisted dying.”
But the Royal College of Psychiatrists highlighted “serious concerns” about the safeguarding of people with mental illness.
President Dr Lade Smith said: “It’s integral to a psychiatrist’s role to consider how people’s unmet needs affect their desire to live. The Bill, as proposed, does not honour this role, or require other clinicians involved in the process to consider whether someone’s decision to die might change with better support.”
The Bill, backed by the Daily Express Give Us Our Last Rights campaign, would allow adults over 18 who are terminally ill and are in the final six months of their life to request assistance from a doctor to end their life. A government assessment has estimate there could eventually be up to 4,500 assisted deaths each year,
The legislation has exposed sharp divisions between religions. Just a third of Muslims back plans to legalise assisted dying, compared with almost two-thirds of Christians, a poll has revealed.
Only 34% of Muslims in England and Wales support the Bill, compared with 64% of Christians and 69% of non-Muslims, according to a survey commissioned by news and culture website Hyphen.