Fierce debate over assisted dying bill in North Yorkshire
MPs will debate and are expected to vote on proposed legislation for the first time in almost a decade.
MPs in the House of Commons will debate an assisted dying bill today and are likely to vote on proposed legislation for the first time in almost a decade.
Labour backbencher Kim Leadbeater has put forward the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, saying it is about giving choice to dying people and is “robust”, with potentially the “strictest protections” against coercion anywhere in the world, requiring sign-off by two doctors and a High Court judge.
Some MPs and campaigners have raised concerns that the Bill has been rushed and will not get the scrutiny it requires – an argument rejected by Ms Leadbeater who insisted it is likely to be subject to more scrutiny because of the level of public debate on the divisive issue.
Here's everything you need to know about what's happening today:
What is assisted dying?
This, and the language used, varies depending on who you ask.
Pro-change campaigners Dignity in Dying argue that, along with good care, dying people who are terminally ill and mentally competent adults deserve the choice to control the timing and manner of their death.
But the campaign group Care Not Killing uses the terms “assisted suicide” and “euthanasia”, and argues that the focus should be on “promoting more and better palliative care” rather than any law change.
They say legalising assisted dying could “place pressure on vulnerable people to end their lives for fear of being a financial, emotional or care burden upon others” and argue the disabled, elderly, sick or depressed could be especially at risk.
What is the current law?
Assisted suicide is banned in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, with a maximum prison sentence of 14 years.
In Scotland, it is not a specific criminal offence but assisting the death of someone can leave a person open to being charged with murder or other offences.
What is happening at Westminster today?
Labour MP Kim Leadbeater formally introduced her Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill to Parliament in October.
If the Bill passes the first stage in the Commons today, it will go to committee stage where MPs can table amendments, before facing further scrutiny and votes in both the House of Commons and the House of Lords.
Ms Leadbeater’s Bill would apply only to England and Wales, a seperate member's bill has been introduced in Scotland, but not voted on yet. Nothing has yet been passed in Northern Ireland.
Who would be eligible for assisted dying?
Only terminally adults who are expected to die within six months and who have been resident in England and Wales and registered with a GP for at least 12 months.
They must have the mental capacity to make a choice about the end of their life and be deemed to have expressed a clear, settled and informed wish – free from coercion or pressure – to end their life.
How would the process work?
The terminally ill person must make two separate declarations, witnessed and signed, about their wish to die.
The process must involve two independent doctors being satisfied the person is eligible and the medics can consult a specialist in the person’s condition and get an assessment from an expert in mental capacity if deemed necessary.
A High Court judge must hear from at least one of the doctors regarding the application and can also question the dying person as well as anyone else they consider appropriate.
How long would it take?
There must be at least seven days between the two doctors making their assessments and a further 14 days after the judge has made a ruling, for the person to have a period of reflection on their decision.
For someone whose death is expected imminently, the 14-day period could be reduced to 48 hours.
What safeguards are there?
It would be illegal for someone to pressure, coerce or use dishonesty to get someone to make a declaration that they wish to end their life or to induce someone to self-administer an approved substance.
If someone is found guilty of either of these actions, they could face a jail sentence of up to 14 years.
"My Dad would have really wanted a choice"
Astrid Hartland from York is the lead campaigner for the Dignity in Dying Group in Yorkshire. She is desperate for a change in the law her Dad died from MND: "My beloved dad, was diagnosed with motor neurone disease in 2017 and from that he experienced a range of symptoms that despite the very best medical palliative care that he did have access to from our hospital and Hospice meant that he had just a range of really complex symptoms that affected his quality of life and that couldn't be controlled, so he had terrible head drop, which was really painful for him.
"He couldn't raise his head, he couldn't close his eyes at night. So very uncomfortable, but actually very blurred vision as well, from the drugs that he took to try and control his saliva, he wasn't able to open his mouth, but then occasionally it would spasm and he would bite his tongue until it bled. He was able to communicate through writing to us, but he couldn't speak or swallow for over a year of the last year of his life. So he was tube fed and then the worst thing was he choked continually because he couldn't swallow his own saliva. So his last few months were just a horrible cycle of dozing, waking, being choked, recovering, then dozing again, waking, choking, recovering, dozing, and it was just heart-breaking that I could do nothing to help him."
"My dad would have really wanted a choice. He became very frail, too quickly to be able to travel to Dignitas, so he had 18 months from diagnosis to death, but he absolutely was clear with his consultants that he wanted a choice to be able to die and what he was offered, which is the standard practise in the UK, was to withdraw food and drink and they would support him while he starved. They say they can make you comfortable, but I don't know that any of us felt that that was a realistic option. He would have absolutely wanted to die at home with us at a time of his choosing."
"I'm deeply worried about coercion"
MPs will get a free vote but the member for York Central Rachel Maskell says she'll be voting against the legislation: "One of the things as legislators we have to ensure is that the safeguards are in place and I have to say that it doesn't hold. And I think when leading judges in our country and former judges are expressing deep concern we have got to listen to those concerns, not only the doctors saying that to assess the prognosis is incredibly difficult at six months only 46% getting the accuracy right.
"But also I'm deeply worried about coercion. Not only do we live in a very coercive society where there are high risks of individuals being coerced into a decision. We also know that many, many people, when they're poorly and quite vulnerable, they will just say, and I heard this as a clinician so many times, 'I don't want to be a burden or social care is so expensive. I'd rather the money go to the children and they can enjoy it' and people could talk themselves into this and they would only have a doctor assessing them.
"I've been saying that we need better palliative care, where people can get real support around pain, around comfort and addressing those end of life issues as well."