MPs voted on Friday to support the assisted dying bill in its final reading in the House of Commons, by a narrow margin of 23 votes.
The draft legislation, which would allow terminally ill adults to end their lives, was initially backed by MPs in a vote in November and has gone through committee and report stages, with MPs debating amendments and voting on proposed changes at its third reading.
After five hours of debate, 314 MPs voted in favour of progressing the bill, while 291 voted against it. This final vote in the House of Commons, meaning that the bill will now proceed to the House of Lords for further scrutiny.
Under the current bill, two doctors would first need to assess the person seeking assisted dying and provide sign-off, but it states that doctors are not under ‘any duty’ to raise assisted dying with patients or to ‘participate in the provision of assistance’ if they do not wish to do so.
Primary care minister Stephen Kinnock told Parliament: ‘This bill has received more parliamentary time than most government and private members bills, and the debate has been respectful and well considered throughout.
‘The scheme set out in the bill now includes assisted dying review panels. Multidisciplinary panels would grant a certificate of eligibility if they are satisfied that all the relevant requirements have been met.
‘The panel would have to hear from the person seeking assistance, at least one of the doctors and any relevant other relevant persons, they would be responsible for monitoring and reporting on the operation of the Act, a role that was previously assigned to the chief medical officer.’
He also said that ‘specific training requirements’ for doctors ‘playing a formal assessing role’ under the bill have been added, and that a ‘dedicated board’ would be appointed to ‘advise on the impact of the bill on disabled people’.
‘Should it be the will of Parliament for this legislation to pass, then the Government will ensure the safe and effective implementation of this service,’ he added.
Changes to the bill which were passed at report stage included:
- New clauses 12 to 15, 20, and 21 – introducing new provisions, including: a prohibition on the advertisement of assisted dying; measures to regulate the substances and devices used in assisted dying; an exemption of assisted deaths from the definition of ‘unnatural deaths’ under the Coroners and Justice Act 2009
- New clause 2 – prohibiting any health professional from raising assisted dying with a person under the age of 18
- Amendment 14 – clarifying that a person cannot be considered terminally ill solely because they voluntarily stopped eating or drinking
- Amendment 21 – requiring the Government to publish an assessment of palliative and end of life care within one year of the Act’s passage.
Earlier this year, England’s chief medical officer has told MPs that GPs will require additional training to be able to fully support patients should the bill pass.
Around one in four GPs would be prepared to be involved in assisted dying, results of a survey by our sister title Pulse has shown.
A version of this story was first published on our sister title Pulse.
