UK parliament votes for assisted dying, paving the way for historic law change

Assisted dying
is a step closer to being made legal in England and Wales after the proposed legislation cleared the House of Commons in a historic vote.
A majority of MPs backed a Bill that would allow terminally ill adults with a life expectancy of less than six months to end their lives.
Despite warnings from opponents around the safety of a Bill they argued has been rushed through, the proposed legislation took another step in the parliamentary process.
MPs voted 314 to 291, majority 23, to approve Kim Leadbeater's Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill at third reading.
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This means the Bill has completed its first stages in the Commons and will move to the House of Lords for further debate and scrutiny.
Both Houses must agree the final text of the Bill before it can be signed into law.
Due to the four-year implementation period, it could be 2029 – potentially coinciding with the end of the government's parliament – before assisted dying is offered.
Encouraging or assisting suicide is currently against the law in England and Wales, with a maximum jail sentence of 14 years.
Supporters of assisted dying have described the current law as not being fit for purpose, with desperate terminally ill people feeling the need to end their lives in secret or go abroad, for fear loved ones will be prosecuted for helping them.
Friday was the first time the Bill was debated and voted on in its entirety since last year's historic yes vote, when MPs supported the principle of assisted dying for England and Wales by a majority of 55 at second reading.
Labour MP Ms Leadbeater has argued her Bill will 'correct the profound injustices of the status quo and to offer a compassionate and safe choice to terminally ill people who want to make it'.
During an hours-long date on Friday, MPs on both sides of the issue recalled personal stories of loved ones who had died.
Conservative former minister James Cleverly speaks in the House of Commons. Photograph: PA Wire
Conservative former minister James Cleverly, who led the opposition to the Bill in the Commons, spoke of a close friend who died 'painfully' from cancer.
He said he comes at the divisive issue 'not from a position of faith nor from a position of ignorance', and was driven in his opposition by 'concerns about the practicalities' of the Bill.
MPs had a free vote on the Bill, meaning they decided according to their conscience rather than along party lines.
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. Public support for a change in the law remains high, according to a YouGov poll published on the eve of the vote.
The survey of 2,003 adults in Britain suggested 73 per cent of those asked last month were supportive of the Bill, while the proportion of people who feel assisted dying should be legal in principle stood at 75 per cent. – PA

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Irish Examiner

28 minutes ago

• Irish Examiner

Irish Examiner view: You are as old you are portrayed

One of our contributors from Co Dublin, commenting on the work of a columnist, has observed that ageism is the last remaining prejudice in Ireland, and the most stubborn. It should, she argues, be designated a hate crime. Her comments conclude a week in which the subject of old age has been high on the public agenda, and which was marked by a landmark vote in the parliament of our next-door neighbours to establish a legal right to assisted dying in England and Wales, an option which is predominantly, although not exclusively, exercised by more senior people. Much of the criticism of the negative portrayal of older people has been laid at the door of the advertising industry, which is accused of simultaneously using unflattering stereotypes and over-promoting services such as death insurance, care homes, funeral parlours, and mobility aids. One company, a manufacturer of ready meals, was criticised for its 'offensive' presentation of older people — depicting them as grumpy and intolerant, and implying many are lonely and isolated. A survey of 4,000 adults of all ages found that more than a third thought people over the age of 55 were negatively projected in ads. Almost half said ads that showed older people as unable to understand or use technology were potentially offensive. More than a fifth of those surveyed believed that depicting ageing as something to be 'fought', especially in beauty advertising, had the potential to cause harm by influencing how an older person saw themselves, or how society might view and treat them. One industry which won't have to worry about its advertising position — because it won't be permitted to actively promote itself — will be the assisted-dying service, whose introduction has taken a step forward after a free third vote in Britain's House of Commons delivered a majority of 23, down from 55 last November. Although it faces further opposition in Britain's House of Lords, the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill opens the way for such services to be introduced before the end of this decade. It will 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. Northern Ireland may have its own opportunity to consider such legislation. This is a profound and controversial legal change, with strong, emotional, and sometimes fanciful arguments being put on all sides. Evangelists are pitched against humanists. Lawyers and doctors are divided. But what is clear is that it is as radical as the reforming legislation on capital punishment, abortion, and homosexuality introduced by the 1960s Labour government. Catholic bishops in Britain this week were warning of the impact on the role of care homes and hospices. Scotland, Jersey, the Isle of Man, and France have already recognised the right to die. England and Wales will most likely be next. We may find, however, that it won't be long before that debate gathers any pace in Ireland. Unsettling news raises temperature That old quip about summer consisting of three sunny days followed by a thunderstorm may have a certain contemporary resonance, but it is clear that we must become much more familiar with the sight of the mercury rising, or whatever has replaced mercury in the health-and-safety-conscious thermometers of 2025. Although we have all been enjoying the seasonal sunny weather, Met Éireann has warned that an 'unsettled' period is on the way. While that might mark a setback for the picnic and barbecue plans, there is rather more unsettling information for us to consider. It's not so much that climate change is going to change the flavour of gin and tonic by altering the composition of juniper berries, its key botanical, although that will certainly be an attention- grabber for some. But what should concern us all is that the planet's carbon budget to meet the internationally-agreed rate of 1.5C has just two years left at the current rate of emissions. The carbon budget measures how much carbon dioxide can still be emitted by humanity while offering a fighting chance of meeting temperature targets. Currently, the world is on track for a catastrophic temperature rise of 2.7C. The latest prediction comes less than a fortnight after the Environmental Protection Agency identified more than 100 key risks to Ireland, with extreme wind, coastal erosion, and flooding among the biggest threats. Rock star David Bowie was not a particularly cheerful soothsayer (depending on which of his multiple personalities was addressing you), but even his apocalyptic 1971 classic gave us Five Years notice of impending disaster. Whatever metric is used, the latest news provides more evidence that time has nearly run out. Ireland may be judged by the friends we keep Spain is one of Ireland's closest allies in Europe. We are in lock step with it over the future of Palestine and opposition to trading with the occupied territories. We are collaborators in the International Court of Justice genocide case against Israel. Where we part company is on matters relating to Nato, the mutual defence organisation comprising 32 countries. Spain has been a member since 1982, following two unsuccessful coups within a country emerging from the bleak three-decade dictatorship of Francisco Franco. We, like Austria and Switzerland, have a constitutional commitment to neutrality. For that reason, we will be highly interested bystanders when Nato meets on Tuesday for a summit at the Hague, which has every appearance of being highly problematical —not least because the US has run out of patience with European countries taking what it regards, with some justification, as a free ride in matters of their own defence. Washington and the Pentagon are principally concerned right now with what is happening between Iran and Israel, and attempting to discern China's plans for the future. Increasingly, the White House perceives Ukraine as a European problem which must be resolved within Europe. Part of the solution, Donald Trump believes, is a meaningful increase in military expenditure. There are good arguments for challenging this. One of them is that the US is simultaneously saddling Europe with tariffs. Another is that the US military-industrial complex expects to be significant beneficiaries of any additional spending. Just how helpful it is for Spain's prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, to release his views on the eve of a difficult conference, we will be able to judge next week. He has made a pre-emptive strike by declaring that any increase to 5% of GDP would be incompatible with Spain's welfare state and its vision of the world. Sánchez, who is struggling with political divisions in Madrid and a raucous argument over corruption in the awarding of government contracts, says he wants a 'more flexible formula' that would either make the target optional or allow Spain to opt out. 'It is the legitimate right of every government to decide whether or not they are willing to make those sacrifices. As a sovereign ally, we choose not to,' he wrote in a letter to Nato secretary general, the Dutchman Mark Rutte. Spain is a back marker among western nations allocating only about 1.3% of its GDP to defence spending. Next week's meeting has been choreographed to persuade Trump to continue to support Europe's defence. It has been cut back to a single working session and its shortening should prevent Trump from leaving early, as he did from this week's G7 meeting in Canada. For Ireland, what happens here is of significance even though we are not in Nato. We have our own unresolved issues with Trump and a recent report from the International Institute for Strategic Studies placed us at the bottom of the European table of 38 countries for defence spend. In this dangerous world, that is not a tenable position. In this case, it is worth creating some perceptual distance between Dublin and the Palace of Moncloa. Read More Irish Examiner view: Sobering truths about miscarriages

The Irish Sun

3 hours ago

• The Irish Sun

Suicide pod inventor ‘vows to bring device to UK' after assisted dying vote despite mystery over ‘murder' of woman

THE inventor of the controversial Sacro "suicide pod" has vowed to bring the death device to the UK - despite it facing scrutiny over the alleged murder of a woman. It comes as MPs on Friday passed a landmark assisted dying bill in a knife-edge final vote. Advertisement 4 The Sarco pod on 23 September at the location where it was allegedly used Credit: AFP 4 The Sarco's inventor Philip Nitschke enters the pod in a demonstration Credit: AP 4 MPs have voted in favour of legalising assisted dying by 314-291 votes 4 Campaigners in favour of the assisted dying bill gathered outside the Houses of Parliament today to celebrate the result Credit: AFP Terminally ill adults are set to be given the legal right to end their lives. The decision paves the way for the biggest shake-up in end-of-life care in decades after weeks of furious lobbying on both sides. The Bill now moves to the House of Lords for further scrutiny before it can become law . If passed, it would mean adults in Advertisement read more on the pod Dr Philip Nitschke, It is a human-sized pod which replaces the oxygen inside it with nitrogen, causing death by hypoxia. Dubbed the "Tesla of euthanasia", it is self-operated by a button on the inside, providing death without medical supervision. A camera inside records their final moments, and the video is handed to a coroner. Advertisement Most read in The Sun Dr Nitschke said: 'As soon as we know that the final legislation is in place, we'll start enthusiastically pursuing the option of using the device in the UK. 'We'll be looking to find UK-registered doctors to assist, and of course, someone who wants to use it and satisfies all of the requirements under the law. First woman to die in 'suicide pod' may have been strangled, prosecutor claims "The doctors involved would know that this would attract attention and possible close scrutiny, which by and large most doctors aren't enthusiastic about, so we'd have to find someone who's a little crusading.' Dr Nitschke invented the Sarco in 2012. Advertisement Last year, he developed a double pod that could be used by a couple who wish to die together, He said: 'If we were able to make use of the device available in the UK, there would be quite a few more applications, I imagine, because people want to die in their own home, or more importantly, be able to take the Sarco to some nice place in the UK rather than having to try and go to some strange country.' The suicide pod activist started the process of assisted dying using the pod last year with The Last Resort organisation - an assisted dying group based in Switzerland. However, the pod became the centre of an alleged murder investigation after the first woman to die inside it was allegedly found with strangulation marks on her neck. Advertisement The anonymous woman, 64 and identified as an American citizen, set up in a forest in Switzerland . The woman is said to have initiated the dying process herself by pressing a button while lying in the pod in the middle of the forest. What measures are included in the bill? THE Assisted Dying Bill is one step closer to becoming law, meaning terminally ill adults are set to be given the legal right to end their lives. But the Bill - which has undergone significant changes at each stage - doesn't come without strict safeguards. Many things have been stripped out, so what remains? APPROVAL FROM DOCTORS AND AN EXPERT PANEL When the Bill was originally proposed, it was planned that a High Court judge would have the final say in each and every case. It comes after Labour's Kim Leadbeater had dismissed warnings that judges couldn't handle the cases due to scarce capacity, insisting her Bill would be the 'most robust' in the world. But Ms Leadbeater amended her legislation. The last-minute tweak, proposed just hours before MPs began debating However, applications will now need the approval of two doctors and a new expert panel. This will be made up of a legal figure, psychiatrist and social worker — a key change from the original plan. EATING DISORDERS MPs accepted an amendment ruling out eligibility for anyone seeking to die solely due to stopping eating or drinking. Ms Leadbeater stressed the Bill would exclude those with eating disorders. It followed concern over the wording of the potential law would provide a loophole for those with anorexia to end their own lives. The Liberal Democrat MP Sarah Olne tabled the amendment. The Royal College of Psychiatrists also expressed concern over any people with mental disorders such as anxiety or depression using the Bill in a similar way. END-OF-LIFE CARE Another amendment requiring ministers to assess the impact on palliative care within a year also passed. Charity Marie Curie warning this alone would not "make the improvements needed" in end-of-life care. REFLECTION PERIOD Some parts of the Bill have stayed the same, however. Two doctors must be independently satisfied a person is eligible for assisted dying. The medics must do their assessments at least seven days apart. There must be a 14-day "reflection period" if the High Court decides the patient can undergo assisted dying. If the two doctors are still satisfied once the period has been completed, the patients will be prescribed lethal drugs. THE PAPERWORK Brits who want to end their lives early must show have the mental capacity to make a choice about ending their life. They must also be deemed to have expressed a clear, settled and informed wish, free from coercion or pressure. If the patient can prove this, they will then have to make two separate declarations, witnessed and signed, saying they want to die. WHAT IS IN THE BILL? The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill applies to those over 18, who are living in England or Wales, and have been registered with a GP for at least 12 months. They must have the mental capacity to make the choice. They must be informed and free from coercion or pressure before making the choice. According to the Bill, they must have a terminal illness and be expected to die within six months. It requires them to declare their wish twice, both witnessed and signed. Two doctors must be satisfied that these requirements are met before the application is approved. A doctor would prepare the substance being used to end the patient's life, but the person would take it themselves. Coercing someone into declaring they want to end their life will be illegal, with a possible 14-year prison sentence. However, a forensic expert who checked her body shortly after she died found injuries near her neck that appeared similar to strangulation marks. The American woman was reportedly terminally ill and had been dying for two years. Advertisement She was diagnosed with Osteomyelitis - a disease that could have manifested the alleged injury marks on her neck - according to Dutch media. But her death raised a host of legal and ethical questions in Switzerland, where active euthanasia is banned but assisted dying has been legal for decades. Cops took several people into custody, including Dr Florian Willet, the president of The Last Resort organisation. The right-to-die activist, 47, took his own life. Advertisement He suffered a mental breakdown after being arrested by Swiss Police last year, according to Dr Nitschke. As part of the probe, prosecutors investigated whether he strangled the woman, but that was ruled out. Willet was released in December after being held in pre-trial detention for 70 days. He reportedly died in Germany with the help of a specialist organisation, though it is not known exactly how he died. Advertisement YOU'RE NOT ALONE EVERY 90 minutes in the UK, a life is lost to suicide. It doesn't discriminate, touching the lives of people in every corner of society - from the homeless and unemployed to builders and doctors, reality stars and footballers. It's the biggest killer of people under the age of 35, more deadly than cancer and car crashes. And men are three times more likely to take their own life than women. Yet it's rarely spoken of, a taboo that threatens to continue its deadly rampage unless we all stop and take notice, now. That is why The Sun launched the You're Not Alone campaign. The aim is that by sharing practical advice, raising awareness and breaking down the barriers people face when talking about their mental health, we can all do our bit to help save lives. Let's all vow to ask for help when we need it, and listen out for others... You're Not Alone. If you, or anyone you know, needs help dealing with mental health problems, the following organisations provide support: CALM, Heads Together, Mind, Papyrus, Samaritans,

Irish Times

6 hours ago

• Irish Times

Scotch Broth – Frank McNally on Michael Cusack's frustrated hope for a pan-Celtic sports alliance

Soon after he helped set up the GAA in 1884, Michael Cusack was also involved in a campaign for a pan-Celtic alliance to link the cultural and sporting traditions of Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. One of his confederates in this enterprise was a Dublin-based Scot of socialist leanings, A Morrison-Miller, whose Caledonian Games exhibitions had already been a spark for the GAA. Together, in 1887, he and Cusack founded a newspaper to promote their joint cause: The Celtic Times. Alas, as it is in Ireland, the first item on the agenda in Scottish politics is the split. Thus in May 1887, to Cusack's disgust, Morrison-Miller was expelled from his own Caledonian Games Society by a Presbyterian faction opposed to the Irish outreach programme. Apart from having a stand in Croke Park named after him, Cusack went on to be immortalised by his portrayal as 'the Citizen' in James Joyce's Ulysses. Or at least by the perception that he is the Citizen. READ MORE In fact, like others in the book, the character was a composite of different people. And insofar as Joyce led readers to believe that the bigoted, anti-Semitic Citizen was him alone, Cusack might have had a case for libel had he lived to see Ulysses published. But as Luke Gibbons pointed out to me during the Bloomsday Festival, the same Cusack may also hold the key to one of the continuing mysteries of Joyce's masterpiece: the anonymous postcard with the message, as interpreted by Mrs Breen, wife of the agitated recipient: 'U.P.: Up.' The simplest interpretation is a slang phrase of the time, equivalent to kaput . If a person or thing was 'U.P.: Up', they were finished. Which might indeed be considered offensive, but hardly the basis for the £10,000 libel suit on which Denis Breen is seeking advice. Cusack, meanwhile, offers a different explanation, as Gibbons found out some years ago when tracking down a full set of the original Celtic Times print run. For there, in Cusack's gossip column of 18th June 1887, is the headline: 'U.P. Up'. Underneath it, Cusack reported the 'extraordinary treble-whip meeting' of the CGS that had 'unceremoniously deposed' Morrison-Miller. The piece includes reference to a 'United Presbyterian' faction, punning on their desire to keep up appearances, and ends by declaring: 'The CGS has died a sudden and unprovided for death. R.I.P.' Elsewhere in his newspaper, Cusack detected a part played in the coup by a shadowy organisation called The Irish Times. He suggested it was trying to wrestle control of the CGS in the same way (as he alleged) that the Freeman's Journal had tried to do with the GAA: 'Is the staff of The Irish Times trying to grab the work of Mr Miller's hands, much as the Freeman tried to grab the work of my hands? Answer at once, Mr James Carlyle, manager of The Irish Times. You signed the circular calling the meeting. Read Carleton's 'Rody the Rover,' and you will find that we ought to be very careful to avoid those practices which little by little qualify us to out-Judas Judas.' We don't know if Carlyle took up the suggestion to read William Carleton's novel about double-dealing among Ribbonmen – a militant Catholic movement of the early 19th century. We do know that the same Irish Times manager also was later namechecked in Ulysses, perhaps with mischievous intent. Even as he ponders the 'U.P. Up' mystery, guessing that Alf Bergan or Richie Goulding 'wrote it for a lark in the Scotch House', Leopold Bloom passes The Irish Times, and admiring the success of its small ads operation, credits 'James Carlisle' (sic), the 'cunning old Scotch hunks'. An effect of the internal coup in the CGS was the cancelation of the Caledonian Games planned for 1887 and their replacement by a 'picnic'. According to Cusack, this caused such an outpouring of letters to The Irish Times that the paper could carry only one tenth of them. Among those that made it in was a satirical proposal that the CGS be renamed the 'Scotch Anti-Irish Bun and Lemonade Society'. In his book Joyce's Ghosts: Ireland, Modernism, and Memory (2015), Gibbons suggests a link between the anonymous postcard and the sectarian commercial wars being fought in Dublin in the early years of the 20th century. Those included the setting up of an undercover Catholic Association, to counter Protestant dominance in business. The Denis Breen of Ulysses was a proudly devout Catholic, said to be related to a senior Vatican clergyman. This is a cause for ridicule in Barney Kiernan's pub. When Bloom sympathises with Mrs Breen's plight, the narrator sneers: 'Begob I saw there was trouble coming. And Bloom explaining he meant on account of it being cruel for the wife having to go round after the old stuttering fool. Cruelty to animals so it is to let that bloody povertystricken Breen out on grass…And she with her nose cockahoop after she married him because a cousin of his old fellow's was pew opener to the pope.' If the 'U.P.: Up' postcard was hinting that the pious Breen had secretly joined the United Presbyterians, that might indeed be grounds for a libel case. At the very least, it would explain why his goat was so much – as the expression puts it – up.