LONDON: Britain’s parliament on Friday passed a “Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life)” bill to legalise assisted dying for terminally ill adults in England and Wales who are assessed by doctors to have six months or less left to live.
In an initial approval of the bill, 330 lawmakers voted in favour with 275 against the legislation demanding the right to choose to end their lives with medical help.
“It will be a very thorough process,” Kim Leadbeater, the Labour lawmaker who introduced the bill, told the BBC, adding that the process could take another six months and that she was open to discussing further changes to address people’s concerns.
“There will be a further opportunity to improve it if we can, and if we can’t, then I hope we’ll be able to reject it,” Conservative lawmaker Danny Kruger, a leading opponent of the legislation, told Sky News, adding he believed it was “impossible to write a bill that is safe”.
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 Labour government weighing in on the issue.
Starmer voted in favour of the bill, though some other senior members of his government voted against. Polls suggest a majority of Britons back assisted dying.
The bill would change the law in England and Wales. As to the other countries in the United Kingdom, Scotland is considering a change to its own law to allow assisted dying, but there are no such proposals in Northern Ireland.
People in favour of assisted dying gathered in groups outside parliament on Friday to watch the vote on their mobile phones. Some had their hands pressed together as if in prayer.
When the result of the vote was announced some people hugged and cheered. Some shouted: “Yes!” Others said: “We have done it” and “Thank you”.
Leadbeater paid tribute to the passionate but measured nature of the debate, even from those who opposed her bill.
