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Watch live: MPs cast final vote for assisted dying bill

Watch live: MPs cast final vote for assisted dying bill

Yahoo4 hours ago

Watch live as MPs debate and vote on the controversial assisted dying bill for the terminally ill in the House of Commons on Friday (20 June).
The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill is back for its third reading today - the first time MPs will vote on the overall piece of legislation since a historic yes vote last year.
In November, MPs gave the proposal their initial backing, with 330 MPs voting in favour and 275 against.
If the new amendments are voted through, the Bill - which allows terminally ill adults to get medical assistance to end their own lives - will go through to the next stage in the House of Lords.
Since last year, more than a dozen MPs who backed or abstained on the Bill have said they were now likely to oppose it, with critics claiming that the Bill does not have enough protections and has been rushed through
In a last-minute letter to all MPs on Thursday (19 June), Labour MPs Markus Campbell-Savours, Kanishka Narayan, Paul Foster and Jonathan Hinder said: 'The Bill presented to MPs in November has been fundamentally changed. This is not the safest Bill in the world.
'It is weaker than the one first laid in front of MPs and has been drastically weakened.'

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Historic vote brings assisted dying closer to becoming law in England and Wales
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Assisted dying is a step closer to being made legal in England and Wales after the proposed legislation cleared the House of Commons in a historic vote. A majority of MPs backed a Bill that would allow terminally ill adults with a life expectancy of less than six months to end their lives. Despite warnings from opponents around the safety of a Bill they argued has been rushed through, the proposed legislation took another step in the parliamentary process. MPs voted 314 to 291, majority 23, to approve Kim Leadbeater's Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill at third reading. This means the Bill has completed its first stages in the Commons and will move to the House of Lords for further debate and scrutiny. Both Houses must agree the final text of the Bill before it can be signed into law. Due to the four-year implementation period, it could be 2029 – potentially coinciding with the end of this Government's Parliament – before assisted dying is offered. Encouraging or assisting suicide is currently against the law in England and Wales, with a maximum jail sentence of 14 years. Supporters of assisted dying have described the current law as not being fit for purpose, with desperate terminally ill people feeling the need to end their lives in secret or go abroad to Dignitas alone, for fear loved ones will be prosecuted for helping them. Friday was the first time the Bill was debated and voted on in its entirety since last year's historic yes vote, when MPs supported the principle of assisted dying for England and Wales by a majority of 55 at second reading. Labour MP Ms Leadbeater has argued her Bill will 'correct the profound injustices of the status quo and to offer a compassionate and safe choice to terminally ill people who want to make it'. During an hours-long date on Friday, MPs on both sides of the issue recalled personal stories of loved ones who had died. Conservative former minister Sir James Cleverly, who led the opposition to the Bill in the Commons, spoke of a close friend who died 'painfully' from cancer. He said he comes at the divisive issue 'not from a position of faith nor from a position of ignorance', and was driven in his opposition by 'concerns about the practicalities' of the Bill. MPs had a free vote on the Bill, meaning they decided according to their conscience rather than along party lines. The proposed legislation would allow terminally ill adults in England and Wales, with fewer than six months to live, to apply for an assisted death, subject to approval by two doctors and a panel featuring a social worker, senior legal figure and psychiatrist. Public support for a change in the law remains high, according to a YouGov poll published on the eve of the vote. The survey of 2,003 adults in Great Britain, suggested 73% of those asked last month were supportive of the Bill, while the proportion of people who feel assisted dying should be legal in principle stood at 75%.

Britain's lawmakers vote to legalize assisted dying, a landmark move after a fraught national debate
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Lawmakers in Britain have narrowly approved a bill to legalize assisted dying for terminally ill people, capping a fraught debate in Parliament and across the country that cut across political, religious and legal divides. MPs passed the bill by 314 votes to 291, in their final say on the question. The bill – which has split lawmakers and sparked impassioned conversations with their constituents the breadth of Britain – will now move to the House of Lords for its final rounds of scrutiny. Friday's vote puts Britain firmly on track to join a small club of nations that have legalized the process, and one of the largest by population to allow it. It allows people with a terminal condition and less than six months to live to take a substance to end their lives, as long as they are capable of making the decision themselves. Two doctors and a panel would need to sign off on the choice. Canada, New Zealand, Spain and most of Australia allow assisted dying in some form, as do several US states, including Oregon, Washington and California. Friday's vote in Parliament coincided with a charged public debate about whether the state should be dictating the choices available to Britons in the final moments of their lives. Proponents included Esther Rantzen, a BBC TV presenter with advanced lung cancer, who argued that the choice would save millions from unnecessary suffering. 'If we don't vote to change the law today, what does that mean?,' asked Kim Leadbeater, the MP who introduced the bill last year. 'It means we will have many more years of heartbreaking stories from terminally ill people and their families, of pain and trauma, suicide attempts, PTSD, lonely trips to (clinics in) Switzerland, police investigations.' The option, she said, is 'not a choice between living and dying: it is a choice for terminally ill people about how they die.' But opponents have criticized the bill on religious and ethical grounds, and raised issues with a legislative process they accuse of being opaque. Former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown argued that fixing Britain's strained end-of-live care system should be prioritized, writing in a rare intervention in The Guardian that the bill 'would privilege the legal right to assisted dying without guaranteeing anything approaching an equivalent right to high-quality palliative care for those close to death.' Seriously ill people 'need the health and social care system fixing first,' Labour MP Vicky Foxcroft said in Parliament Friday. 'They want us as parliamentarians to assist them to live, not to die.' Friday's debate was concluded with a free vote, meaning that MPs were allowed to decide for or against the bill according to their conscience, and free from any party-line whipping. The proposed bill is broadly in line with the Oregon model, and does not go as far as Switzerland, the Netherlands and Canada, which allow assisted death in cases of suffering, not just for terminally ill people. It differs from euthanasia, the process in which another person deliberately ends someone's life to relieve suffering. It is currently a crime to help somebody die in England and Wales, punishable by up to 14 years in prison. Performing euthanasia on a person, meanwhile, is considered murder or manslaughter.

Voices: Poll of the day: Do you support the assisted dying bill?
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The assisted dying bill returns to Parliament today for its final reading amid growing controversy – and a vote that could determine whether the legislation moves forward or falls entirely. A group of Labour MPs dramatically withdrew their support on Thursday night, citing serious concerns about the removal of key safeguards, including the requirement for High Court oversight. They warned that the bill had been 'drastically weakened' and no longer offers enough protection for vulnerable patients. If passed, the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill would allow people in England and Wales with fewer than six months to live to apply for a medically assisted death. Approval would be required from two doctors and a panel including a senior legal figure, a social worker, and a psychiatrist. Campaigners are making a final push on both sides of the debate, and with a narrow majority at stake, every vote counts. MPs have a free vote and are not bound by party lines. Supporters argue that the bill offers dignity and choice to those in need. Meanwhile, opponents argue it opens the door to abuse and erodes trust in end-of-life care. With so much at stake and such deeply personal questions at the heart of this debate, we want to hear from you: do you support the assisted dying bill? Vote in our poll and let us know your thoughts in the comments.

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