In Depth:  euthanasia

Nicola Laver

Laws allowing for assisted suicide in England and Wales look increasingly likely, with Parliament expected to have a free vote on the issue within weeks. Meanwhile, the Scottish Government says the Scottish Parliament lacks power to pass assisted dying legislation in its current form.

A Private Member’s bill introduced mid-October by Labour MP Kim Leadbetter is to be debated in November. Lord Falconer’s Assisted Dying Bill introduced in the Lords in July is also due to have its second reading.

Milla Ling-Davies

As the Parliamentary debate for assisted dying approaches, fears are growing that the hospice funding crisis could make patients more likely to opt to die.

Parliament is gearing up to debate proposals to give terminally ill people in England and Wales the right to choose to end their life later this year. At the same time, hospices, who receive only a third of their funding through the NHS, have been calling for more government support as they face job cuts, bed cuts and even closure.

Nicola Laver

Hospices in the UK are warning of severe underfunding, leading to fears that if ‘assisted dying’ is legalised, it would lead to more terminally ill patients requesting it.

In July, a Private Member’s bill on assisted dying was introduced in the Lords, and CARE has warned that a ‘right to die’ would become a ‘duty to die’. The bill was introduced by Lord Falconer, who has been campaigning for legalising assisted dying for more than a decade.

politics & policy

James Mildred

‘If at first you don’t succeed, try, try, try again…’ One politician who has taken this mantra to heart is Lord Falconer.

When I first joined CARE (Christian Action Research and Education), his Private Members’ bill to legalise assisted suicide for terminally ill adults with six months or less to live was before the House of Lords. In the end, time ran out and it failed to progress enough to become law.

Nicola Laver

Several doctors and other health professionals in Scotland have called for MSPs to vote against proposed laws allowing assisted suicide.

Work is already underway on legislation that will permit assisted dying for those who are terminally ill and mentally competent. It is the third attempt to introduce laws to legalise assisted dying in Scotland.

Evangelicals are awaiting the result of a House of Lords debate on assisted suicide scheduled for late October.

The bill aims to legalise assisted suicide in England and Wales for terminally ill adults with six months or less left to live.

Nicola Laver

Assisted dying could soon be legal in the Bailiwick of Jersey after a citizens’ panel voted strongly in favour of a change in the law.

Jersey’s Assisted Dying Citizens’ Jury was asked whether assisted dying should be permitted and, if so, under what circumstances. The jury heard oral and written expert evidence over a ten-week period to give them an informed vote.

A new initiative opposing the campaign to legalise euthanasia has been launched at Westminster.

The All-Party Parliamentary Group for Dying Well – Dying Well, for short – says it wishes ‘to promote excellence in palliative care and stand against the legalisation of doctor-assisted suicide’.