Britain Votes to Support Right of Terminally Ill to End Their Lives Through Assisted Dying

Lawmakers in the U.K. passed the controversial bill after a year of campaigning from both sides and hours of debate in Parliament

Terminally ill patients in Britain are closer to being able to choose when they can die after a new vote supporting medical aid in dying in the U.K.'s Parliament.

After a contentious hours-long debate, lawmakers in Britain on Friday, Nov. 29 voted to support a bill allowing people with a terminal condition and less than six months to live the choice of taking a substance to end their lives, the Associated Press reported.

The bill is similar to medical aid in dying laws already in effect in 10 U. S. states, including Oregon and Washington.

"Let's be clear, we're not talking about a choice between life or death, we are talking about giving dying people a choice about how to die," the bill's main sponsor, Kim Leadbeater, a member of Parliament from the Labour Party, said in the opening speech in a packed chamber, according to CBS News.

While acknowledging the decision in front of the lawmakers, Leadbeater added, "If any of us wanted an easy life, they’re in the wrong place," the AP reported.

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The bill passed the House of Commons by a vote of by 330 to 275. It now faces further debate and scrutiny as it moves through both Houses of Parliament before it becomes law.

If it does, the law would apply to those in England and Wales over the age of 18. As for other parts of the U.K., Scotland is considering its own legislation, while Northern Ireland has no such proposal, Reuters reported.

The proposed legislation would only allow the option of medical aid in dying for terminally ill adults who are expected to die within six months and who are capable of making a decision themselves. Two doctors, and then a judge, would need to sign off on the choice, per the AP.

MP Danny Kruger, who led the argument against the bill, argued that the legislation amounted to a "state suicide service" and said he was concerned that the role of Parliament should be to protect the vulnerable, according to CBS News.

"We are the safeguard, this place, this Parliament, you and me," he said. "We are the people who protect the most vulnerable in society from harm and yet we stand on the brink of abandoning that role."

U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who leads the Labour Party, declined to share his views on the issue before the vote, but he did support the bill, even though some other members of his government voted against it, the AP reported.

Polls suggest a majority of Britons back assisted dying, and a recent Gallup poll showed that most Americans favor legal euthanasia, when another person deliberately ends someone’s life to relieve suffering. Euthanasia is legal in several European countries including the Netherlands.

According to the BBC, Leadbeater said that if the bill eventually became law, there would a period of up to two years before its implementation because "it is more important to get this right than to do it quickly."

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The proposed bill in Britain is similar to current law in Oregon, but doesn't go as far as laws in Switzerland, the Netherlands and Canada, which allow for access to assisted death in cases of suffering, not just for terminally ill people.