MPs will be chatting about a bill to make assisted dying legal in England and Wales for the first time after making some big changes to it. The bill passed the first stage in the Commons last November, but since then, there have been a ton of changes and additions made by both sides. The vote to pass or reject the bill probably won’t happen on Friday, but it’s more likely to go down in June. The government quietly made some changes to its impact assessment on assisted dying, admitting they made mistakes in calculating how many people might use the service if it becomes law. They lowered their guess for the number of assisted deaths in the first year from 787 to 647.
Kim Leadbeater, the Labour MP pushing the bill, thinks it’s coming back to the Commons even stronger. She wants MPs to really take advantage of this opportunity. According to her, the current law isn’t cutting it for dying people and their families, and most MPs agreed when they backed her bill in November. The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, which would let some terminally ill adults choose to end their lives, got through its first hurdle in Parliament with 330 to 275 votes. Since then, it’s been under a microscope for six months by a parliamentary committee, and they’ve made some changes, like ditching the need for a High Court judge to approve each request for an assisted death. Instead, a group of experts would oversee the process.
MPs have the freedom to vote how they want, so they can follow their conscience instead of a party line. The topic has divided Parliament, with strong feelings on both sides. Those against assisted dying think the vibe has changed among MPs, but only a few have said they’ve changed their minds since November, and it would take a bunch more to block the bill. The final vote in the Commons probably won’t happen until at least June 13. The government released a report on the bill’s impact, projecting NHS savings from £919,000 to £10.3 million. However, they had to correct the upper estimate for assisted deaths in the first year from 787 to 647.
