MPs to cast final vote on assisted dying bill

ITV News20 hours ago

MPs will cast their final vote on the assisted dying bill when it returns to the House of Commons on Friday.
The crucial vote will see the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill either clear the House of Commons and move to the Lords, or fall completely.
The proposed legislation would allow terminally ill adults in England and Wales, with fewer than six months to live, to apply for an assisted death, subject to approval by two doctors and a panel featuring a social worker, senior legal figure and psychiatrist.
Kim Leadbeater, the architect of the bill, told ITV News' Talking Politics podcast she was 'positive and optimistic' that a majority of MPs would support 'the most robust assisted dying bill in the world', despite a growing number of MPs declaring they will vote against the legislation in recent months.
Last week, MPs voted on a series of amendments to the bill, passing a clause that will stop health professionals from raising the subject of assisted dying with child patients, as well as another banning advertising the service.
The final vote on Friday, following months of Parliamentary processes, will determine whether assisted dying is a step closer to becoming law, or whether it will be thrown out entirely.
ITV News understands 162 MPs are so far planning to vote for it, 152 plan to vote against it, 22 remain undecided and 23 are due to abstain. This means we can share the voting intention of 359 of the 650 MPs.
, while more than 20 remain undecided.
What will happen on Friday?
The bill is back for third reading, which is the first time MPs will vote on the overall piece of legislation since the yes vote in November.
It is expected that some outstanding amendments might be voted on first thing on Friday before debate on the bill as a whole begins.
MPs voted 330 to 275, majority 55, to approve the bill at second reading in November.
The relatively narrow majority means every vote will count on Friday, to secure the bill's passage to the House of Lords for further debate and voting.
What is in the bill?
The proposed legislation would allow terminally ill adults in England and Wales, with fewer than six months to live, to apply for an assisted death.
This would be subject to approval by two doctors and a panel featuring a social worker, a senior legal figure and a psychiatrist.
The terminally ill person would take an approved substance, provided by a doctor, but administered only by the person themselves.
When would assisted dying be available if the bill became law?
The implementation period has been doubled to a maximum of four years from royal assent, rather than the initially suggested two years.
If the bill were to pass later this year, that would mean it might not be until 2029, potentially coinciding with the end of this government's parliament, that assisted dying would be offered.
Leadbeater, who put forward the extended timeframe, has insisted it is 'a backstop' rather than a target, as she pledged to 'hold the government's feet to the fire' on implementing legislation should the bill pass.
The extended implementation period was one of a number of changes made since the bill was first introduced to the Commons back in October.
What other changes have there been?
The High Court safeguard has been dropped and replaced by expert panels – a change much-criticised by opponents who said it weakened the Bill, but something Leadbeater has argued strengthens it.
At the end of a weeks-long committee process earlier this year to amend the Bill, Leadbeater said rather than removing judges from the process, 'we are adding the expertise and experience of psychiatrists and social workers to provide extra protections in the areas of assessing mental capacity and detecting coercion while retaining judicial oversight'.
Changes were also made to ensure the establishment of independent advocates to support people with learning disabilities, autism or mental health conditions and to set up a disability advisory board to advise on legal implementation and impact on disabled people.
Amendments added earlier this month during the report stage in the Commons will also see assisted dying adverts banned if the Bill becomes law, and a prohibition on medics being able to speak with under-18s about assisted dying.

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Opponents of assisted dying vow to fight on as MPs back Bill

North Wales Chronicle

an hour ago

North Wales Chronicle

Opponents of assisted dying vow to fight on as MPs back Bill

Ms Leadbeater's Bill passed what could be its final Commons hurdle by 23 votes, down from the majority of 55 it secured when MPs first voted on it in November. The Spen Valley MP declared 'thank goodness' after the result while Rebecca Wilcox, daughter of campaigner Dame Esther Rantzen, said it was 'wonderful' the result had come ahead of her mother's birthday. But opponents vowed to fight on against what they called a 'deeply flawed Bill'. A group of 27 Labour MPs who voted against the legislation said: 'We were elected to represent both of those groups and are still deeply concerned about the risks in this Bill of coercion of the old and discrimination against the disabled, people with anorexia and black, Asian and minority ethnic people, who we know do not receive equitable health care. 'As the Bill moves to the House of Lords it must receive the scrutiny that it needs. Not about the principles of assisted dying but its application in this deeply flawed Bill.' But Ms Leadbeater told the PA news agency she hoped there would be no 'funny games' in the Lords, as her Bill faces further tough hurdles in the upper chamber. She added: 'I would be upset to think that anybody was playing games with such an important and such an emotional issue.' Meanwhile, one of the leading opponents of the Bill, Conservative Danny Kruger, described its supporters as 'enemies', saying he felt 'like Evelyn Waugh at the time of the Nazi-Soviet Pact in 1939'. In a series of tweets on Friday night, the East Wiltshire MP accused assisted dying campaigners of being 'militant anti-Christians' who had failed to 'engage with the detail of the Bill'. He added: 'It's the revenge of the middle-aged against their dependents.' Ms Leadbeater's Terminally Ill Adults (End Of Life) Bill will now proceed to the House of Lords, where it will undergo further scrutiny before becoming law, should peers decide to back the legislation. But some peers have already spoken out against the legislation, with the Bishop of London, Dame Sarah Mullally, saying they 'must oppose' the Bill as 'unworkable and unsafe'.