LIVE NEWS: Assisted Dying 🔴

Edited by 2nd Year Journalist

The UK debate on assisted dying focuses on whether people should have the right to end their lives with medical assistance, particularly in cases of terminal illness. Supporters argue for personal choice and dignity, while opponents cite risks of coercion and ethical concerns. Despite being illegal, the issue remains an ongoing public and parliamentary discussion topic.

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Summary:

Edited by Laura Lallana

Today the UK Parliament is debating the Assisted Dying Bill, a piece of legislation that could legalize assisted dying for terminally ill adults in England and Wales. The bill proposed by Labour MP Kim Leadbeater proposes allowing adults with less than six months to live the option to end their lives, contingent on approvals from two doctors and a High Court judge.

It would give chronically ill people the right to choose to end their life. People willing to receive assisted dying must be over 18 live in England and Wales have been registered with a GP for at least 12 months, have a mental capacity to make the choice and be deemed to have expressed a clear, settled and informed wish, free from coercion or pressure, be expected to die within six months, make two separate declarations, witnessed and signed about their wish to die and satisfy two independent doctors that they are eligible with at least seven days between each assessment.

Under the proposed legislation, each request to end a person's life would require approval from a High Court judge. Following this authorization, the patient would need to observe a 14-day waiting period before proceeding.

As of now several countries have legalised assisted dying under specific conditions. But, laws, terminology and conditions vary widely. These practices are legal in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Spain, Switzerland, and some states of the US.

Switzerland was the first country to legalise assisted suicide in 1942 as long as the motives are not selfish but active euthanasia is still illegal.

Voluntary assisted dying (VAD) is legal in all Australian states to people that meet all the criteria. To access this assisted dying the person must be aged 18 or over, be an Australian citizen or permanent resident, have decision-making capacity, have an enduring request for VAD, have a disease, illness or medical condition that will cause death or is incurable, expected to cause death within 6, 12 or no time frame depending on the state and causing suffering that cannot be relieved in a way that the person finds tolerable.

Canada was the first Commonwealth country to legalise medical assistance in dying (MAID) dying in 2016. The eligibility criteria a person might follow are being at least 18 years old and capable of making health care decisions, have a grievous and irremediable medical condition, make a voluntary request for MAID, and give informed consent to receive medical assistance in dying.

Spain legalised euthanasia and assisted dying in 2021. The requirements to receive assisted dying are being of legal age, and capable and aware at the time of application, having Spanish nationality or permanent residence in Spain, suffer from an incurable, chronic or disabling disease, having made two written voluntary requests, not being the result of any coercion or external pressure and provide informed consent prior to receiving the assistance in dying.

LIVE UPDATES: 🔴

10:40AM- Edited By Lorenna Bomme

Conservative MP Danny Kruger has strongly opposed the assisted dying bill, arguing that the focus should be on improving palliative care and funding hospices instead of legalising assisted dying. He believes that with better end-of-life care, people could die with little to no suffering. Kruger also warns that the bill is too complex to be adequately scrutinised in the time available, potentially passing with few amendments. He further criticises the bill's safeguards, suggesting they could create discrimination by granting a new right to one group while excluding others.

10:45AM- Edited By Harrison Pearce

Sourced by Dignity in Dying has started campaigning outside to gather on Parliament Square in support of @kimleadbeater's bill with a simple message for MPs - dying people deserve a choice.

10:46AM- Edited By Libby Dovaston

“Suicide is Contagious”- Daniel Kruger

Daniel Kruger a British Conservative Party politician and one of the most high profile campaigners against assisted dying. Today Danny Kruger speaks in parliament insisting he calls it “assisted suicide" and not “assisted dying.”

He says we protect the most vulnerable in society from harm, we as a parliament are the safeguards for them and by allowing this bill we can’t protect them from death. Addressing the commons saying if we agree to this bill, the future "lies a very different world, the worst world, with a very different idea of human value, the idea that our individual worth lies in our utility, valuable only for so long if we are useful, not a burden, not a cost, not making a mess. Let's not be the parliament that authorises that idea."

“This new reality the option for assisted suicide will change the lives for everyone”