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Eighty-five MPs want to speak in Commons debate, which is likely to go on for
hours before vote is called
MPs have begun to debate a bill that would allow doctors to help terminally
ill people end their lives, before the first House of
Commons vote on assisted dying for 20 years.
Rob Marris, the Labour MP who introduced the assisted dying bill, said it was about ensuring peaceful deaths rather than euthanasia.
An unprecedented 85 MPs want to speak in the debate, which is likely to go on for hours before a vote is called.
Under the proposals, a terminally ill person would be able to request assistance with ending their life if they have been diagnosed by a doctor as having less than six months to live.
A high court judge must confirm that they are satisfied that the person is of full capacity and has a voluntary, settled and informed wish to end their life, having made a declaration signed by two doctors.
The doctor would then be able to prescribe medicines for that person to enable them to end their own life, delivered after a cooling off period of at least 14 days, which could be reduced to six days if the person has a diagnosis of less than one month to live.
Passions ran high from the beginning of the parliamentary debate. Sir Crispin Blunt, a Tory former minister whose parents and father-in-law died of cancer, made the case for people to be given a choice how to end their lives, saying he was somewhat “appalled that the Catholic and faith lobby seek to limit personal autonomy”.
Caroline Spelman, a Conservative former environment secretary, said the sanctity of life should be respected and older people should not feel they are a burden on their family.
The Labour MP Lyn Brown said she was concerned that elderly people could be “emotionally blackmailed” by relatives to end their lives.
However, another Labour MP, George Howarth, said he felt it could be a “perfectly rational choice for people to say they do not want to be a burden on family and friends”.
One of the most emotional interventions was from Labour’s Yasmin Qureshi, who said her 83-year-old mother had been given three days to live and began to say she felt a burden on her family and could not go on, yet survived and fully recovered.
Another Labour MP, Jim Fitzpatrick, said his use asbestos gloves and other clothing during his time in the fire service had led him to fear a painful death from mesothelioma. “If that’s what lies in store for me, I want to control my own death,” he said.
The debate has come to the House of Commons after the supreme court said in 2014 that it could not make a ruling in favour of Tony Nicklinson’s right to die because it was a matter for parliament.
Peers discussed the arguments in the last parliament when Lord Falconer introduced an assisted dying bill which would have allowed doctors to prescribe a lethal dose to terminally ill patients judged to have less than six months to live. They were evenly split when the bill was given its second reading in the House of Lords and the legislation was nodded through to committee stage without division.
However, it was held up by amendments and ran out of time before the end of the last parliament. After the election, Falconer suggested his proposals would have more of a chance if they were taken up by an MP in the Commons.
It is clear that David Cameron does not favour introducing assisted dying but it would be difficult for the government to ignore the legislation if it were to be overwhelmingly backed by MPs.
The prime minister’s official spokeswoman said on Thursday: “The PM’s views are clear on this issue. He is not convinced further steps need to be taken and he is not in favour of an approach that would take us closer to euthanasia.”
Cameron’s opposition to the idea is significant, as private members bills rarely make it on to the statute book without a degree of government backing to allow time for debate in parliament.
MPs are being lobbied by both sides of the debate. This week a group of senior doctors wrote to the Guardian saying the current law on assisted dying was “dangerous and cruel” for forcing terminally ill patients to end their lives abroad.
On the other side, campaigners such as the Paralympian Tanni Grey-Thompson argue that disabled people in particular are worried about the implications of the bill.
“I fear that the MP Rob Marris’s assisted dying bill, which will get its second reading in parliament on Friday, would exacerbate the assumption that because there may be some things I cannot do, everything must be negative. The prospect of changing the criminal law on encouraging and assisting suicide, as this bill would do, fills me with dread,” Lady Grey-Thompson wrote in the Guardian.
Justin Welby, the archbishop of Canterbury, was among the faith leaders who warned in the Observer that Britain would cross a “legal and ethical Rubicon” if parliament votes to permit terminally ill patients to end their lives.
Rob Marris, the Labour MP who introduced the assisted dying bill, said it was about ensuring peaceful deaths rather than euthanasia.
An unprecedented 85 MPs want to speak in the debate, which is likely to go on for hours before a vote is called.
Under the proposals, a terminally ill person would be able to request assistance with ending their life if they have been diagnosed by a doctor as having less than six months to live.
A high court judge must confirm that they are satisfied that the person is of full capacity and has a voluntary, settled and informed wish to end their life, having made a declaration signed by two doctors.
The doctor would then be able to prescribe medicines for that person to enable them to end their own life, delivered after a cooling off period of at least 14 days, which could be reduced to six days if the person has a diagnosis of less than one month to live.
Passions ran high from the beginning of the parliamentary debate. Sir Crispin Blunt, a Tory former minister whose parents and father-in-law died of cancer, made the case for people to be given a choice how to end their lives, saying he was somewhat “appalled that the Catholic and faith lobby seek to limit personal autonomy”.
Caroline Spelman, a Conservative former environment secretary, said the sanctity of life should be respected and older people should not feel they are a burden on their family.
The Labour MP Lyn Brown said she was concerned that elderly people could be “emotionally blackmailed” by relatives to end their lives.
However, another Labour MP, George Howarth, said he felt it could be a “perfectly rational choice for people to say they do not want to be a burden on family and friends”.
One of the most emotional interventions was from Labour’s Yasmin Qureshi, who said her 83-year-old mother had been given three days to live and began to say she felt a burden on her family and could not go on, yet survived and fully recovered.
Another Labour MP, Jim Fitzpatrick, said his use asbestos gloves and other clothing during his time in the fire service had led him to fear a painful death from mesothelioma. “If that’s what lies in store for me, I want to control my own death,” he said.
The debate has come to the House of Commons after the supreme court said in 2014 that it could not make a ruling in favour of Tony Nicklinson’s right to die because it was a matter for parliament.
Peers discussed the arguments in the last parliament when Lord Falconer introduced an assisted dying bill which would have allowed doctors to prescribe a lethal dose to terminally ill patients judged to have less than six months to live. They were evenly split when the bill was given its second reading in the House of Lords and the legislation was nodded through to committee stage without division.
However, it was held up by amendments and ran out of time before the end of the last parliament. After the election, Falconer suggested his proposals would have more of a chance if they were taken up by an MP in the Commons.
It is clear that David Cameron does not favour introducing assisted dying but it would be difficult for the government to ignore the legislation if it were to be overwhelmingly backed by MPs.
The prime minister’s official spokeswoman said on Thursday: “The PM’s views are clear on this issue. He is not convinced further steps need to be taken and he is not in favour of an approach that would take us closer to euthanasia.”
Cameron’s opposition to the idea is significant, as private members bills rarely make it on to the statute book without a degree of government backing to allow time for debate in parliament.
MPs are being lobbied by both sides of the debate. This week a group of senior doctors wrote to the Guardian saying the current law on assisted dying was “dangerous and cruel” for forcing terminally ill patients to end their lives abroad.
On the other side, campaigners such as the Paralympian Tanni Grey-Thompson argue that disabled people in particular are worried about the implications of the bill.
“I fear that the MP Rob Marris’s assisted dying bill, which will get its second reading in parliament on Friday, would exacerbate the assumption that because there may be some things I cannot do, everything must be negative. The prospect of changing the criminal law on encouraging and assisting suicide, as this bill would do, fills me with dread,” Lady Grey-Thompson wrote in the Guardian.
Justin Welby, the archbishop of Canterbury, was among the faith leaders who warned in the Observer that Britain would cross a “legal and ethical Rubicon” if parliament votes to permit terminally ill patients to end their lives.
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