UK Parliament to hold first vote on assisted dying in nine years

U.K. Members of Parliament will hold a landmark vote on assisted dying on Friday as they decide whether to allow terminally ill people with less than six months to live to opt to end their own lives.

Under the legislation put forward by Kim Leadbeater, a backbench member of the governing Labour Party, assisted dying would be restricted to adults with a terminal illness who are expected to die within six months. Two doctors and a highest court judge would also be required to approve the decision. It broadly follows the U.S. state of Oregon model, meaning the lethal drugs must be self-administered.

It’ll be the first vote on the issue since 2015, though if the bill passes its so-called second reading, there are still several more parliamentary steps before it becomes law, including opportunities to amend it. If the legislation is successful, it would be a fundamental social reform bringing England and Wales into line with about a dozen countries that permit assisted dying such as Canada and Switzerland, as well as 11 U.S. states.

Assisted dying has substantial public backing, with surveys consistently showing support for a legal change that would give Britons an alternative to traveling overseas to clinics including Dignitas in Switzerland. High-profile celebrities including TV presenter Esther Rantzen, who was diagnosed with lung cancer, have brought public attention to the issue, prompting Prime Minister Keir Starmer to promise her he would grant time for a vote on the issue “early” in the next parliament during the summer’s election campaign.

Rantzen told LBC radio on Thursday that she doesn’t think the bill will become law in time to benefit from it, and that if her life becomes “unbearable,” she would go to Switzerland without her family to avoid them being investigated by British police.

“I’m hoping, obviously, that other people will have the choice, be able to stay at home, be able to say goodbye to those they love the most,” she said. “I have that to look forward to, even if I can’t achieve that myself.”

A YouGov poll published last Friday found 73% of Britons believe that assisted dying should be legal in the U.K., compared to 13% who say it should not. That picture was consistent among voters of all the major parties, the pollster said.

MPs are to be given a “free vote” on the issue, meaning they can decide for themselves how they vote rather than being told to follow party lines. Lawmakers across the parties are split on the issue, with many telling Bloomberg they are still undecided. The vote is expected to be close, although those involved with proposing the bill say they expect it to pass.

Former prime ministers Gordon Brown, Theresa May, Liz Truss and Boris Johnson are against the bill, with the latter telling the Spectator he worried it would lead to “the industrialization of state-sponsored suicide.” Another ex premier, David Cameron, said this week in an article for the Times newspaper that he has changed his mind to now support a change in the law, believing it would achieve a “meaningful reduction in human suffering.”

The Labour government has no official position on the law, with ministers being told last month not to intervene in the debate. Cabinet ministers have, nevertheless, made their views clear, most notably Health Secretary Wes Streeting, who told the BBC he worried about people being “guilt-tripped” into taking the decision to end their lives, and later ordered civil servants to conduct an impact assessment of the cost of the policy, warning the legal change could force cuts to other parts of the health service.

Streeting’s interventions prompted increased media scrutiny of the positions of the Cabinet on the issue, revealing a split among ministers. A majority of publicly-declared Cabinet members support the bill, but several prominent figures will vote against it, including Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner, according to people familiar with the matter, though she has not stated her position publicly. Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood, who like Streeting would have a role in implementing the new law, said she would vote against it on religious grounds.

Starmer held a meeting with Streeting to express his unhappiness with his health secretary’s interventions and the scrutiny they prompted, according to people familiar with the matter. The prime minister, who voted for assisted dying in 2015 and said last year he retained that view, refused to say how he’ll vote this time, when asked Thursday in a news conference.