Labour politician Kim Leadbeater will introduce a bill granting terminally ill people in England and Wales a way to allow physicians to help them die, although the details won’t be released until later in the month ahead of a Parliamentary vote.
Prime Minister Keir Starner has promised that lawmakers will have a “free vote,” meaning they will not be obliged to vote along party lines. Starmer supported a 2015 assisted dying bill and has said “there are grounds for changing the law.”
Opponents of assisted dying, however, say there is no way to change the law without endangering vulnerable people, according to actress Liz Carr, a disability rights campaigner.
Assisted suicide — where patients take a lethal drink prescribed by a doctor — is legal in parts of the U.S. as well as several countries around the world including Canada.
Trudo Lemmens, a professor of health law and policy at the University of Toronto, said Britain’s first priority should be to address inequities in health care across the U.K.
“What we’ve seen is that people ask for medical assistance in dying because they feel they’re a burden to others,” Lemmens said, referring to Canada after it legalized assisted dying in 2016.
“Pressure inevitably increases to expand it beyond what is legislated,” Lemmens said. “Countries should be extremely careful on this and deeply study what has happened in other jurisdictions before they allow end-of-life termination by physicians.”
