The News
British lawmakers voted to support an assisted dying bill on Friday, giving terminally ill adults the ability to end their own life.
The law would require patients to be expected to die naturally within six months and have the mental capacity to choose how they end their life, subject to “tough” safeguards, The Guardian reported.
Lawmakers were free to vote with their consciences, rather than along party lines, and the bill passed 330 to 275 in support. However, it will also have to pass through the House of Lords, where it will likely face significant scrutiny.
A similar bill was overwhelmingly defeated in 2015, but public opinion and the makeup of Parliament has since shifted.
SIGNALS
New MPs wrestled with ‘free’ vote on major social issue
For new MPs — 335 out of 650 were elected for the first time in July —Friday’s vote was a particularly “big moment”: They would be voting according to their moral compasses on a matter of profound social change, the BBC said, without party ideology to fall back on. Many MPs described feeling a heavy responsibility on their shoulders as they headed into the debate. However, there has also been some criticism that the vote was rushed: Over 150 MPs applied to speak before the vote at 2:30 pm local time, leaving only around two minutes per speaker, said Sky News. Even if the bill is passed, it will likely have a difficult time getting through the next stage, the outlet noted.
No international consensus on the issue
The UK is among a string of European countries to push assisted dying bills in recent years: Irish MPs earlier this year endorsed a report calling for legalization, meanwhile, in France, debates over a similar bill to the UK were interrupted by July’s snap election. Already across the continent and beyond, various forms of assisted dying and euthanasia are legalized. However, there is little consensus over what supported dying legislation should look like, and some legislative decisions by other governments have faced intense scrutiny: Canada, which has the highest assisted death rate in the world, was cautioned in 2021 by UN representatives against expanding its access to those with chronic conditions. “I ask a lot of questions, but I tend to trust my patients [with the decision],” one Canadian doctor told The Guardian.