Historic vote on legalizing assisted dying in England and Wales set to be close

LONDON — An impassioned debate was taking place in the British Parliament on Friday Friday on a proposal to help terminally ill adults end their lives in England and Wales, an issue that has divided lawmakers as well as the country at large.

It’s the first time the House of Commons has had the opportunity to vote on legalizing what some people call “assisted dying” but which others term as “assisted suicide” in nearly a decade — and it looks like it will be a close result.

Ahead of the debate on the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, around 180 lawmakers have indicated they will back the proposal, while about 150 have said they won’t. The other 300 or so lawmakers have either yet to make up their mind or have not disclosed how they will vote.

The debate is impassioned, touching on issues of ethics, grief, the law, religion, crime and money and being listened to and watched by the hundreds of people on either side of the argument who have gathered outside Parliament.

Lawmakers are recounting personal experiences and those of their constituents while others are focusing on the impact on the hard-pressed state-run National Health Service and the urgent need to improve palliative care.

Around 160 members of parliament have indicated they would like to make a speech during the debate, but the speaker of the House of Commons, Lyndsay Hoyle, said it’s unlikely that they all will have a chance to do so.

A vote in favor of the bill would send it to another round of hearings, where it will face further scrutiny and votes in both Houses of Parliament. If ultimately approved, any new law is unlikely to come into effect within the next two to three years.

A vote against it would kill it.

“Let’s be clear, we’re not talking about a choice between life or death, we are talking about giving dying people a choice about how to die,” the bill’s main sponsor, Kim Leadbeater, said in the opening speech in a packed chamber.

She conceded that it’s not an easy decision for lawmakers but that “if any of us wanted an easy life, they’re in the wrong place.”

Danny Kruger, who led the argument against the bill, said he believes Parliament can do “better” for terminally ill people than a “state suicide service” and that the role of legislatures is to offer safeguards for the most vulnerable.

“We are the safeguard, this place, this Parliament, you and me,” he said. “We are the people who protect the most vulnerable in society from harm and yet we stand on the brink of abandoning that role.”

Although the current bill was proposed by a member of the ruling center-left Labour Party, it is an open vote with alliances formed that bring together those who are usually political foes.

At its heart, the bill would allow adults over the age of 18 who are expected to have fewer than six months to live to request and be provided with help to end their life, subject to safeguards and protections. They would have to be capable of taking the fatal drugs themselves.

Supporters say the law would provide dignity to the dying and prevent unnecessary suffering, while ensuring there are enough safeguards to prevent those near the end of their lives from being coerced into taking their own life. Opponents say it would put vulnerable people at risk, potentially coerced, directly or indirectly, to end their lives so they don’t become a burden.

It’s the first time the House of Commons has debated an assisted dying bill since 2015, when a similar measure failed. Only around a third of the lawmakers from that parliament are still in office.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who has previously supported assisted dying, said the government will remain neutral and he wouldn’t reveal how he would vote. Some members of his cabinet have said they will support the bill, while others are against it. Kemi Badenoch, the leader of the main opposition Conservative Party, has said she’ll vote against.

Other countries that have legalized assisted suicide include Australia, Belgium, Canada and parts of the United States, with regulations on who is eligible varying by jurisdiction. More than 500 British people have ended their lives in Switzerland, where the law allows assisted dying for nonresidents.

Assisted suicide is different from euthanasia, allowed in the Netherlands and Canada, which involves health care practitioners administering a lethal injection at the patient’s request in specific circumstances.