A Labour Government brings assisted dying one step closer in the UK

FATE welcomes the election of the new Labour Government

The general election result comes at a critical moment for the campaign to legalise assisted dying in the UK, with Scotland, Jersey, and the Isle of Man already debating how to implement a law for their citizens, and growing cross-party appetite for a full and fair debate on how Westminster can bring similar legislation to England and Wales. 

In February, a 14-month inquiry by cross-party MPs confirmed that such laws already work safely in many countries around the world, with tight safeguards that benefit and protect dying people, and improve end-of-life care as a whole.

In March this year, the largest and most in-depth, UK-wide survey of public opinion on assisted dying revealed that three quarters of the public back changing the law on assisted dying, consistent across ages, backgrounds, and voting intentions, and with majority support in every parliamentary constituency across Great Britain. 

The new Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer, has said that he is “personally committed” to change. The House of Commons last voted on assisted dying nine years ago. A Private Members’ Bill introduced in 2015 by then-Labour MP Rob Marris was comfortably defeated, by 330 votes to 118.

Starmer, who served as Britain’s top prosecutor between 2008 and 2013, told MPs he’d overseen around 80 assisted dying cases in that role — and decided no prosecution should be brought in 79 of them. “We have arrived at a position where compassionate, amateur assistance from nearest and dearest is accepted but professional medical assistance is not, unless someone has the means and physical assistance to get to Dignitas,” Starmer said, “That to my mind is an injustice that we have trapped within our current arrangement.”

Under Starmer’s leadership in 2010, the Crown Prosecution Service issued guidance which included six factors that could mitigate against prosecuting someone who has aided another’s suicide — including being “wholly motivated by compassion.” Starmer had already promised MPs a free vote on the issue in the next parliament if Labour took office. Such a vote would allow MPs to follow with their conscience rather than vote on party lines.

Questions remain over what  priority a Labour government would place on an assisted dying overhaul, given the many other demands it will face. If a Starmer government does not prioritise the issue, a backbench MP could still try to drive assisted dying further up the agenda. Legislation enacting social change has often been sparked by backbenchers, including moves to decriminalize homosexuality and abortion. 

The debate is reaching a crescendo and with the new Prime Minister’s personal support and his political pledge to give time and attention to the matter, the odds are increasingly in favour of greater choice at the end of life becoming a reality, across the UK. 

For further comment – please contact FATE at info@fate.scot

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