What is the Assisted Dying Act? Details of new divisive law revealed

A new law has been proposed to legalize assisted death in England and Wales.

The bill calls for terminally ill people in England and Wales, who are expected to die within six months, to be given the right to end their own lives.

It is a private member’s bill, meaning it has been proposed by MPs rather than the government. Although private members’ bills rarely become law, the idea that terminally ill people should be given the option to end their own lives has gained momentum in Britain in recent years.

If the bill is passed, Britain will join countries such as Switzerland, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the US state of Oregon in allowing people with a terminal illness to end their own lives if they wish.

What is the difference between euthanasia and assisted suicide – and what are the current laws?

Under the Suicide Act 1961, it is an offense in England and Wales to act in encouraging or assisting the suicide or attempted suicide of another person. Those found guilty of assisting a suicide could face up to 14 years in prison.

Euthanasia is also illegal (it is considered manslaughter), with a maximum penalty of life imprisonment.

According to the NHSEuthanasia refers to the intentional ending of a person’s life to relieve suffering (for example, when a doctor gives a terminally ill patient a drug he or she does not need, with the aim of ending life).

Assisted suicide, on the other hand, refers to intentionally helping another person to take their own life.

What could change if the Assisted Dying Act is passed?

There are several requirements a person must meet to qualify under the proposed law.

The person must be an adult (18 years or over), resident in England and Wales and registered with a GP for at least 12 months.

They must have the mental capacity to make a choice about the end of their life and be considered to have expressed a clear, firm and informed wish – free from coercion or pressure – to end their life.

They must be terminally ill and expected to die within six months.

They must make two separate statements, witnessed and signed, about their wish to die.

The process should involve two independent doctors being satisfied that the person is eligible and allowing the clinicians to consult a specialist in the person’s condition and, if necessary, obtain an assessment from a mental capacity expert.

A High Court judge must question at least one of the doctors on the application and may also question the dying person as well as anyone he or she deems appropriate.

There should be a minimum of seven days between the two doctors making their assessment and a further fourteen days after the judge has made a ruling, so that the person has a period to think about their decision.

For someone whose death is expected soon, the period of 14 days can be reduced to 48 hours.

Who is campaigning for a change in the law?

Dame Esther Rantzen is terminally ill and has been a powerful voice in the assisted dying debate

(Kirsty O’Connor/PA Archive

Labor MP Kim Leadbeater has long been an advocate for changes in assisted dying.

She told Times Radio last month: “Many people have contacted me about this issue, about the fact that at the moment, if you are terminally ill, you don’t have the choice to end your life in a way that would want.

“We currently have a system that is simply not fit for purpose. We have people who are taking their own lives out of desperation because they are suffering so much.”

Ms Leadbeater has also told LBC that “we have a duty and a moral obligation to change the law for these people”.

Dame Esther, 84, has stage four lung cancer and has said in the past that she planned to travel to Switzerland to end her life. She has called Ms Leadbeater an “extraordinary person” for introducing the bill to Parliament.

Who spoke out against it?

Speaking to BBC Breakfast, Tanni Grey-Thompson, former Paralympic activist and campaigner for the rights of vocal disabled people, who is a crossbench peer, believes there are “a lot of concerns about how this bill might expand if it comes through” and she expressed her concerns about how the decision to end lives will be made, especially if the terminally ill person is vulnerable or subject to coercive control.

The Archbishop of Canterbury condemned the bill in an interview with BBC Newsnight, calling it “dangerous” and “a slippery slope”. “I worry that even the best intentions can lead to unintended consequences, and that the desire to help our neighbor could inadvertently open the door to even more pain and suffering for those we try to help,” he wrote for MailOnline.

What does the public think?

In one poll Compared to last year, 65 percent of British adults aged 16 to 75 said it should be legal for a doctor to help a terminally ill patient end their life. Similar research from King’s College London This year it emerged that 63 per cent of people in England and Wales said they wanted the current parliament to make assisted dying legal for terminally ill adults within the next five years.

However, the survey found that 20 percent of people said they did not want this to happen – and 61 percent said they would be concerned about some terminally ill people being pressured into assisted dying if the law would change.