Latest news with #assisteddying
The Independent
32 minutes ago
- Politics
- The Independent
Watch live: MPs cast final vote for assisted dying bill
Watch live as MPs debate and vote on the controversial assisted dying bill for the terminally ill in the House of Commons on Friday (20 June). The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill is back for its third reading today - the first time MPs will vote on the overall piece of legislation since a historic yes vote last year. In November, MPs gave the proposal their initial backing, with 330 MPs voting in favour and 275 against. If the new amendments are voted through, the Bill - which allows terminally ill adults to get medical assistance to end their own lives - will go through to the next stage in the House of Lords. Since last year, more than a dozen MPs who backed or abstained on the Bill have said they were now likely to oppose it, with critics claiming that the Bill does not have enough protections and has been rushed through In a last-minute letter to all MPs on Thursday (19 June), Labour MPs Markus Campbell-Savours, Kanishka Narayan, Paul Foster and Jonathan Hinder said: 'The Bill presented to MPs in November has been fundamentally changed. This is not the safest Bill in the world. 'It is weaker than the one first laid in front of MPs and has been drastically weakened.'
Daily Mail
32 minutes ago
- Health
- Daily Mail
Assisted dying vote on a knife edge as Yes and No camps BOTH claim they have numbers to win bitter campaign over law on helping terminally ill end their lives
The vote on legalising assisted dying is on a knife-edge today with both Yes and No campaigns saying they are on course to win the increasingly close campaign. Kim Leadbeater said she is confident MPs will tomorrow back her plan to allow terminally ill people with six months or less to live to be helped to commit suicide, when it is put to a final vote tomorrow. But opponents of the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill also believe they may have the numbers to see it off the proposed decriminalisation in England and Wales. Ms Leadbeater has argued terminally ill people must be given choice at the end of their lives, but opponents of her Bill have warned it fails to guarantee protections for society's most vulnerable. The legislation passed a preliminary vote last November by 55 votes. But since then more than 20 MPs who backed it have publicly changed their minds, and the Bill would fall if 28 MPs switched directly from voting yes to no on Friday. So close is the vote that Alliance MP Sorcha Eastwood, who is isolating with Covid, has been offered a private ambulance to bring her to the Commons to vote against it. MPs will get a free vote on what is known as a 'conscience matter' with Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer indicating he will vote Yes and ministers Wes Streeting and Shabana Mahmood expected to vote No. 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. Significant changes since it succeeded in the initial vote in Parliament include the replacement of a High Court safeguard with the expert panels, and a doubling of the implementation period to a maximum of four years for an assisted dying service to be in place should the Bill pass into law. Making her case for a change in the law, Ms Leadbeater said: 'We have the most robust piece of legislation in the world in front of us tomorrow, and I know that many colleagues have engaged very closely with the legislation and will make their decision based on those facts and that evidence, and that cannot be disputed. 'But we need to do something, and we need to do it quickly.' A YouGov poll of 2,003 adults in Great Britain, surveyed last month and published on Thursday, suggested public support for the Bill remains high at 73 per cent – unchanged from November. The proportion of people who feel assisted dying should be legal in principle has risen slightly, to 75 per cent from 73 per cent in November. Friday will be the first time the Bill has been debated and voted on in its entirety since last year's historic yes vote, when MPs supported the principle. So close is the vote that Alliance MP Sorcha Eastwood, who is isolating with Covid, has been offered a private ambulance to bring her to the Commons to vote against it. However opponents claim there are not enough safeguards in the legislation as it stands to protect vulnerable people. A think tank last night warned hundreds of domestic abuse victims could be coerced into using assisted dying by their abusers. The Other Half warned that victims are already at a higher risk of taking their own lives and the situation could be exacerbated. It has estimated that as many as 631 abuse victims, who are also terminally ill, could opt to die every year within a decade, based on the Government's own calculations about the uptake of the ability to seek help to die. A poll carried out by the women's rights think tank found that two thirds of voters, men and women, are concerned about victims being pressured into dying by their abusers. The Other Half chief executive Fiona Mackenzie said: 'This bill is designed to kill people – and that extraordinary purpose needs extraordinary safeguards. 'Government cannot avoid facing up to the reality before us, we have to understand how the bill could deliver the death of those we otherwise work hard to prevent.
Times
35 minutes ago
- Health
- Times
Assisted dying bill latest: Starmer yet to decide if he will vote
Public support for the bill remains high, according to the latest YouGov poll. The proportion of people who feel assisted dying should be legal in principle has risen slightly, to 75 per cent from 73 per cent in November. Its survey of 2,003 adults in Great Britain took place last month and the findings were published yesterday. Kim Leadbeater, the Labour MP behind the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, has warned that defeat for the bill would end hopes of changing the law for another decade as she rejected claims of rushing through reform. She insisted her bill is 'the most robust piece of legislation in the world' and has argued dying people must be given choice at the end of their lives in a conversation which has seen support from high-profile figures including Dame Esther Rantzen. Leadbeater said it had 'gone through hours and hours and hours of scrutiny', adding: 'This is not being rushed through, this is not a quick thing that's happened overnight.' Four Labour MPs confirmed on the eve of today's vote that they will switch sides to oppose the proposed new law. Paul Foster, Jonathan Hinder, Markus Campbell-Savours and Kanishka Narayan wrote to fellow MPs to voice concerns about the safety of the proposed legislation. They branded it as being 'drastically weakened', citing the scrapping of the High Court Judge safeguard as a key reason. However, Bill sponsor Kim Leadbeater has insisted that replacing the judge's approval with multidisciplinary panels strengthens the legislation, as it will incorporate wider expert knowledge to assess assisted dying applications. Protesters and campaigners have been gathering this morning in Westminster before the vote on the assisted dying bill. Photos from the scene show supporters from campaign group Dignity in Dying holding pink placards with white letters urging 'legalise assisted dying, vote yes today.' Opponents of the bill are wearing white masks with the word 'euthanise' on the forehead, and they are holding white signs saying 'don't make doctors killers' and 'protect our NHS from becoming a national suicide service'. In 1937, Switzerland legalised assisted suicide provided those doing the assisting were not motivated by 'any selfish intent'. Six decades later, the US state of Oregon legalised physician-assisted suicide for people with less than six months to live. In 2001, the Netherlands became the first country in the world to decriminalise assisted dying. As MPs vote on the bill today, this is how other countries in the world compare. Read in full: Where is assisted dying legal? How the rules worldwide compare More than 7,500 terminally ill people a year could seek state support to end their life within a decade of the practice being legalised, the government estimates. Officials believe about 60 per cent of requests for assisted dying would be approved, equating to approximately 4,500 or 0.68 per cent of all deaths from 2039 onwards. The findings came in an impact assessment drawn up by the Department for Health and Social Care. Officials also estimated that legalising the practice in the UK could cost the NHS tens of millions of pounds. Staff time costs ranged from £412,000 to £1.98 million in year one, to between £2.6 million and £11.5 million in year ten. MPs will today take part in the final Commons vote on whether to back a bill to help terminally ill adults end their lives in England and Wales. Politicians supported legalising assisted dying when they first debated the issue in November by 330 votes to 275. However, since then the outcome has become too close to call, after analysis by The Times showed that margin eroding. The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill has undergone months of scrutiny leading to some changes in the proposed legislation. One change is to replace the role of a High Court judge in signing off an application for an assisted death with a panel of experts. This panel would contain a senior lawyer, a psychiatrist, and a social worker. Advocates of assisted dying believe their bill will pass its final Commons vote on Friday, despite a shift among MPs against it. Kim Leadbeater, the MP who proposed the law change, denied the bill has been rushed and remained confident MPs would vote in favour of it. Read in full: Assisted dying vote 'too close to call' as MPs turn against bill Sir Keir Starmer has yet to decide whether he will take part in today's landmark vote on assisted dying as he deals with the Middle East crisis. The prime minister, who is in favour of assisted dying, is working from Downing Street today but could end up missing the vote depending on his commitments as he seeks to deescalate the conflict between Iran and Israel. A government source said no decision as been made He backed assisted dying in 2015 and has signalled that his view has not changed. The issue is deeply divisive and has split the Labour Party. Starmer said this week: 'It is a matter for individual parliamentarians, which is why I've not waded in with a view on this publicly, and I'm not going to now it's coming to a conclusion. 'There has been a lot of time discussing it, both in Parliament and beyond Parliament, and quite right too. It's a really serious issue. 'My own position is long-standing and well-known in relation to it, based on my experience when I was chief prosecutor for five years, where I oversaw every case that was investigated.'
Washington Post
an hour ago
- Politics
- Washington Post
UK lawmakers to vote on allowing terminally ill adults to end their lives
LONDON — British lawmakers are set to vote Friday on whether to back a bill to help terminally ill adults end their lives in England and Wales, in what could be one of the most consequential social policy decisions they will ever make. Members of Parliament supported legalizing assisted dying when they first debated the issue in November by 330 votes to 275 .
Bloomberg
an hour ago
- Politics
- Bloomberg
UK Lawmakers Set Final Vote on Legalization of Assisted Dying
The UK's House of Commons will hold a final vote on Friday on whether to allow assisted dying, a move that could usher in a significant cultural shift over how to handle those with terminal illnesses. The measure will go through its third reading with members of Parliament, with the outcome of the vote expected by 2.30 pm. While Kim Leadbeater, the Labour MP behind the bill, said she was 'confident' it would pass, several of her colleagues said the result would be too close to call.
