Lawmakers in Britain are debating divisive legislation on assisted dying for terminally ill patients ahead of what is expected to be a knife-edge vote of conscience.
Parliament started a second reading of the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) bill on Friday, assessing whether mentally competent adults with an incurable illness who have a life expectancy of less than six months should be allowed to end their lives with medical help.
Those in favour of the bill, which would apply in England and Wales, argue that it is about shortening the death of those who are terminally ill and giving them more control. Opponents believe vulnerable, ill people will feel pressured to end their lives to avoid being a burden to their families.
Opening the debate, Labour MP Kim Leadbeater, who proposed the measure, said changing the law would give terminally ill people “choice, autonomy and dignity at the end of their lives”.
“Let’s be clear, we’re not talking about a choice between life or death, we are talking about giving dying people a choice about how to die,” Leadbeater said, as supporters of both sides gathered outside parliament.
Reporting from outside parliament, Al Jazeera’s Rory Challands said: “[This] is the first time the MPs actually have a chance to sit down to talk about it, scrutinise it and importantly to vote on it.”
The House of Commons – parliament’s lower chamber – was “packed”, he said, with 160 to 170 MPs requesting time to speak in the debate, each limited to about eight minutes each, “showing you the level of concern, the level of attention this issue is getting”.
Two polls last week indicated that a majority of people back the proposed legislation, but many members of parliament indicated that they had yet to make up their minds ahead of the free vote, which will see them casting votes according to their conscience rather than along party lines.
Leadbeater has said that the bill would include “the strictest safeguards anywhere in the world” – any patient’s wish to die would have to be signed off by a judge and two doctors.
But support in parliament appears less secure, with some MPs saying the current proposal lacks detail and needs to be underpinned by more research to study the legal and financial implications of a law change.
Speaker Lindsay Hoyle rejected a bid on Friday by a group of MPs to halt further debate on the bill. They had previously lodged a proposed amendment, which could stop the bill from progressing to a vote.
If MPs vote in favour of the bill, it will proceed to the next stage of the parliamentary process, and face further votes in 2025.
Al Jazeera’s Challands said it was unclear how the vote would go, noting that it had “a long way to go before it actually ends up on the British legislative books” even if it did pass, needing to clear a “five-stage process” both in the Commons and then in the House of Lords.
If the United Kingdom eventually passes the law, it will join other countries like Australia, Canada and some US states in launching the major social reform.
Since the 1961 Suicide Act, it has been illegal in England and Wales to encourage or assist suicide, and those found guilty face up to 14 years in prison.
