By Michael GryboskiMainline Church Editor Friday, November 29, 2024

United Kingdom lawmakers have passed a bill that, if passed, will legalize assisted suicide in England and Wales under strict circumstances.

The House of Commons passed a bill by a vote of 330 votes in favor to 275 against. The legislation will then go to committee review before it can be enacted.

The bill allows for medical assistance in dying for any person at least 18 years old who has less than six months to live. The request for assisted suicide must also be approved by a High Court judge and two doctors.

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The proposal was divisive within the government, as Prime Minister Keir Starmer supported it while Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner and Health Secretary Wes Streeting voted against it.

Esther Rantzen, a prominent supporter of the bill who is terminally ill with lung cancer, believes the legislation offers everyone an “equal choice” about how they end their lives.

“Those who don't want assisted dying and don't want to participate in providing assisted death can opt out of it, don't have to do it, don't choose to end their lives that way,” Rantzen said. The Guardian. “So it offers everyone an equal choice, whatever their religion.”

Kit Malthouse, a Conservative Party member and supporter of the bill, argued that the legislation was compassionate by allowing people to avoid pain near the end of their lives.

“The deathbed for too many is a place of misery, torture and degradation, a reign of blood and vomit and tears,” said Malthouse, as quoted by The. New York Times. “I see no compassion and no beauty in that: only deep human suffering.”

Nigel Farage, an MP known for his past advocacy of Brexit, was among those who voted against the legislation, fearing that it would inevitably be widened.

“I voted against the assisted dying bill, not because of a lack of compassion but because I fear that the law will be expanded. If that happens, the right to die may become the duty to die,” Farage, leader of Reform UK. , tweeted

In recent years, there has been much debate about the thorny ethical issue amid efforts to legalize assisted suicide in certain circumstances.

In 2022, the General Synod of the Church of England passed a motion by a vote of 289 in favor, 25 against and 33 abstentions to denounce assisted suicide and call on the government to consider alternative approaches, such as improving palliative care.

Among the campaigners for assisted suicide is former Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey, who challenged the stance of the Church of England, saying the matter was “deeply Christian”.

Opponents of assisted suicide fear that laws could be manipulated by family members or others to pressure vulnerable individuals into choosing assisted suicide.

A recent survey of more than 5,000 British adults carried out by Focaldata on behalf of the Care Not Killing coalition found that a majority (59%) believe it is “impossible to create safeguards that would always prevent people from being forced into assisted dying.” About 24% disagreed with that assessment. The survey also found general confusion among the public about what “assisted dying” means, with around half (52%) thinking it involves “life-sustaining treatment”.