By Maria Caires
Image by Vilius Kukanauskas from Pixabay
Lawmakers in England say the Assisted Dying Bill, which ran out of time to become law, will be reintroduced in upcoming parliamentary sessions following almost 18 months of debate, according to the BMJ.
The bill had faced “significant delays in the unelected House of Lords” with “a large number of amendments from a small minority of peers”, which meant that it could not go forward within the timeframe, said backbench MP Kim Leadbeater, who introduced the bill.
Meanwhile, MPs in Scotland have already voted against legalising assisted dying for the terminally ill adults.
This bill could have allowed a person over the age of 18 who has decision-making capacity, with six months or less to live, to seek medical help to end their life.
Scottish Liberal Democrat, Liam McArthur, was the one to promote the bill. He said MSPs had the chance to deliver “a robust and well safeguarded law that would give terminally ill Scots with mental capacity the choice of an assisted death if they wanted one”.
McArthur said the bill had the “overwhelming support of a significant majority of Scots regardless of religious affiliation, political party or disability status”.
A total of 175 amendments to the bill were accepted in one week alone.
“They just want to die”
Catherine, who is in her 40s, says: “Yes, I’m in support of it, if someone has a terminal illness and has the mental capacity to make that decision.
“Say you have someone with stage four cancer and are in terrible pain, I’ve seen people like that and they just want to die.”
Other amendments were dealing with patient safeguards, including protecting patients from coercion and ensuring alternative treatment management options are properly discussed and assessed.
If the bill had been passed, two doctors would both have to confirm a person is genuinely terminally-ill and be “reasonably expected” to die within the proposed six months to be eligible for an assisted death.
The patient also was required to have the mental capacity to make the decision of requesting for aid. They should’ve been able to understand, communicate and remember their decision for it to be allowed.
Backlash from professionals
In Scotland, however, the bill had received backlash, especially with the Royal College of Psychiatrists in Scotland and Royal Pharmaceutical Society in Scotland have withdrawn their support.
Catherine expressed her opinions on the backlash and said “people have 101 reasons to be against it, we live in a democracy”.
This is the third-time that this bill has been presented to Scottish MPs, with the two previous attempts having failed at their initial vote.
Image by Parentingupstream from Pixabay
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