UK moves closer to allowing assisted dying

Published:

Nov 30, 2024 02:17 GMT

The proposal under debate establishes that assisted dying may be requested by people over 18 years of age who have been diagnosed with a terminal illness and have less than six months to live.

The House of Commons of the United Kingdom preliminarily approved this Friday a bill to allow assisted dying for terminally ill patients in England and Walesin what could be one of the country’s most profound social reforms in decades, reported Reuters.

Of agreement With the proposed legislation, only English and Welsh citizens, over 18 years of age, who have been diagnosed with a terminal illness and have less than six months to live, will be able to apply for assisted dying.

Applicants will require the authorization of two doctors and a Supreme Court judge, in addition to They must self-administer medications that could end their lives..

Division in the British Government

Amendments to the bill are expected to be tabled as it is examined by parliamentary committees. Until now there have been raised more than 200 amendments in both chambers, so the proposal is expected to be subject to intense scrutiny.

On the other hand, even though UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer backed the bill, some members of his Cabinet voted against. Among the senior officials who disapproved of the proposal were the foreign minister, health minister and justice minister David Lammy, Wes Streeting and Shabana Mahmood respectively.

In the House of Commons there was no debated a bill on assisted dying since 2015, when a similar measure was widely rejected. According to The New York Times, the current proposal could mark a change in the history of the United Kingdom, comparable with the legalization of abortion and the abolition of the death penalty. Those two laws were approved in 1967 and 1969, respectively.

To date, assisted dying is legal in Germany, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Colombia, Spain, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Portugal, Switzerland and Luxembourg, as well as in 10 states and one district (Columbia) of the US.