British lawmakers open emotional debate on assisted dying

LONDON – British lawmakers were deciding on Friday whether to support assisted dying after an impassioned debate over a bill that has sparked a national conversation over dignity in death and end-of-life care.
Were parliament to back the bill, and see it through the full legislative process, Britain would follow other countries such as Australia, Canada and some US states in launching what would be one of its biggest social reforms in a generation.
The “Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life)” bill would allow mentally competent, terminally ill adults in England and Wales assessed by doctors to have six months or less left to live, the right to choose to end their lives with medical help.
Those in favour of the bill argue it is about shortening the death of those who are terminally ill and giving them more control.
“Let’s be clear, we are not talking about a choice between life or death. We are talking about giving dying people a choice of how to die,” Labour MP Kim Leadbeater said as she introduced her bill to parliament.
But opponents believe vulnerable, ill people will feel they should end their lives for fear of being a burden to their families and society, rather than for their own wellbeing.
The debate could help sway the many lawmakers who have said they are yet to make up their minds in the free vote, when politicians vote according to their conscience rather than along party lines.
Supporters and opponents of assisted dying demonstrated outside parliament, reflecting the strength of feeling over a subject which has split the country nearly a decade after the last attempt to change the law was voted down.
“This is not about killing off people who are not wanted in society,” said Emma Hobbs, 54, a former nurse who was holding photographs of her father outside parliament. She said he had died in agony.
“It’s about letting your loved ones have their own wish.” (Story continues below)
The proposal has stirred a national debate in Britain, with former prime ministers, faith leaders, medics, judges, the disabled and ministers in Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s government weighing in on the subject.
One demonstration outside parliament held up banners saying: “Don’t make doctors killers”. Large advertisements in the nearby Westminster transport station said: “My dying wish is my family won’t see me suffer. And I won’t have to.”
Polls suggest a majority of Britons back assisted dying and Leadbeater said the law needed to catch up with public opinion.
But support in parliament appears less secure, with some lawmakers saying the current proposal lacks detail and needs to be underpinned by more research to study the legal and financial implications of a change to the law.
“If I voted for this bill, I would have on my conscience many more people whose voices we cannot hear. The people who would be vulnerable in consequence of the huge changes that this bill would induce in our society,” said Conservative MP Danny Kruger, an opponent. He described the measure as flawed.
“By all means, let’s have this debate, but we should be having it before the bill of this magnitude is brought, and the process of the bill should be much more comprehensive.”
Critics say that safeguards introduced around assisted dying have later been loosened, for instance in Canada, where the legalisation initially for terminally ill patients was expanded to those with incurable conditions.
Leadbeater said the system would be “nothing like happens in Canada”, adding: “It has strict, stringent criteria, and if this house (of Commons, lower house of parliament) chooses to pass this bill, that criteria cannot be changed.”
Starmer has supported assisted dying in the past. He will vote on Friday but has not said how. His Labour Party, which has a large majority in parliament, is split over the matter.
If lawmakers vote in favour of the bill, it will proceed to the next stage of the parliamentary process and face further votes in 2025.