Members of British Parliament have voted to legalise assisted suicide, with 314 votes for and 291 against.
Labour MP Kim Leadbeater’s Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill passed by a narrow majority of 23 votes, and will now proceed for further scrutiny in the House of Lords before it becomes law.
The bill would enable those in England and Wales who are judged to have less than six months to live to request assistance in ending their life, following approval from two separate doctors.
Despite the bill requiring that the decision be both free and informed, free from coercion or pressure, critics of the legislation have argued that the legislation will create a culture in which those who meet the conditions but don’t avail of assisted suicide will come to feel like a burden.
Opening the debate, Ms Leadbeater said that rejecting the bill was not “a neutral act,” but rather a vote for the “status quo”.
“It fills me with despair to think MPs could be here in another 10 years’ time hearing the same stories,” she said.
Conservative MP James Cleverly, in opening the debate for opponents of the bill, said that MPs were “promised the gold standard, a judicially underpinned set of protections and safeguards,” but added that the safeguards they ended up with were inadequate.
Recent polling by YouGov found almost three-quarters of Britons to be in support of the bill, with 75 percent of the respondents saying they believe assisted suicide should be legal “in principle”, and 57 percent saying they support assisted suicide “both in principle and in practice”.
However, pro-life campaigners and disability activists described the vote as marking “a sad day for our nation”.
“With our NHS described by the Health Secretary as ‘broken’ & 100,000 people still dying each year without the palliative care they need, this rushed & flawed Bill remains a disaster waiting to happen,” Right to Life UK said in a statement.
“The most vulnerable in our society deserve our unwavering protection & the highest standard of care, not a pathway to assisted suicide. Evidence from overseas shows that countless people will be pressured or coerced into ending their lives if this dangerous Bill becomes law.”