A highly controversial vote to legalise assisted dying could take place within weeks as the prime minister has reportedly decided to back plans to fast-track the process through the House of Commons.
According to The Mail on Sunday, Keir Starmer is privately preparing to push the legislation through by Christmas, much sooner than initially thought. It would be the biggest fundamental social change before parliamentarians since the 1967 Abortion Act.
If passed, the proposed legislation would allow adults who are terminally ill with a life expectancy of less than six months an option to end their lives with medical assistance. Although Sir Keir Starmer had avoided setting a specific timescale for a vote, a successful Private Members’ Bill ballot, which enables backbench MPs to introduce legislation, has sped up the process. Labour’s Jake Richards has offered to bring this bill forward having come eleventh.
MPs who came higher up on the ballot have also been encouraged to adopt this policy, including Kim Leadbeater, representing Spen Valley, who topped the ballot and Clive Lewis of Norwich South who holds the fourth position.
Currently, assisting a person to commit suicide is a criminal act. Any bill in the Commons would be similar to the Assisted Dying Bill proposed by former Labour justice secretary Lord Falconer in the House of Lords. His proposed bill only considers those mentally capable of deciding to end their life, and only if two doctors and the High Court approve of the decision.
The last time the Commons debated the issue, in 2015, it was defeated in a free vote by 330 to 118. However, the likelihood of it passing now has increased due to the significant influx of new Labour MPs, many of whom are expected to support it, along with backing from the prime minister. It is still expected to be a free vote.
However, this policy has ignited a moral debate over the inviolability of human life and whether the law might be abused, with the justice secretary branding the bill a ‘mandate for granny killers’.
Similarly, health secretary Wes Streeting said: “The right protections must be in place so that people do not feel assisted dying is an option they choose because they fear becoming a burden”. Streeting added that he is ‘deeply uncomfortable’ with the idea of legalising assisted dying in the current healthcare climate, adding: “I do not think end-of-life care in this country, is in a condition yet where we are giving people the freedom to choose, without being coerced by the lack of support available.”
Dignity in Dying, which campaigns for assisted dying to be made legal, said: “The British people are demanding an assisted dying law… this is now an undeniable fact and one this new generation of MPs is keenly aware of. The time for change has clearly come.”
