Assisted Dying Bill passed by slim majority

[smallglassbottle]

https://news.sky.com/story/politics-latest-starmer-assisted-dying-trump-israel-iran-labour-12593360

Those with advance dementia won’t be able to consent to anything like this so rightly it wouldn’t be used for them.

The key thing is that the person has to make the choice themselves and be able to take the drug independently.

Glad it’s passed. My eyes were opened caring for my MIL as she died. There was no need for what she endured.

Animals are treated with more dignity.

(edited for awful grammar)

I cried hearing this was passed.

my father died in agony and would have given anything for a peaceful death. i will be endlessly grateful if I am able to make that choice myself one day.

I agree - in principle. The problem is that medical science is much better at keeping people alive than in previous decades, and currently people with no quality of life are being kept alive long past the point when they have mental capacityy to say that's not what they want. It is absolutely crucial that the law in this area is extremely well drafted so that people can give permission when they still unarguably have mental capacity to do so.

I agree. I watched my 95 year old grandma die a slow and painful death (bedridden).
she was utterly miserable and had always expressed in her earlier years that she didn’t want to ever be in that state and same for me. I’d much rather be in control of when I die if it’s due to old age/quality of life.

The safeguards have.been whittled away until they are practically non existent. This.is.how Canada started and the right to die has been expanded. I think of the case of the paralympian who.went to her gp for help getting a stair.lift, they couldn't help with that so offered her euthanasia instead. This is a bad bill, with very little scrutiny or time.for debate. Parliament debated for 700 hours about whether or not to ban fox.hunting but less than 100 hours on this bill,.which was not on anyone's manifesto.

But as the bill stands it would not apply to those people. You can have Alzheimers or dementia for years. By the time they only have six months left to live they are unlikely to have the capacity required under the current proposals. I have absolutely no doubt that the provisions of the bill will be extended over the years.

In principle I believe that people should be able to chose when they die but the reality is that, because of the state that the country is in at the moment, there will be pressure. Maybe not direct from family members, but if you know that there is no care available or that because of cuts to your disability benefits you will be living in poverty then you may feel pressured to do this. I know this would not be the case as it stands but the way things are going I would not be at all surprised if the scope is extended to cover those who are not felt to be "contributing" to society whether as a result of age or disability.

I really hope I am proved wrong but at this stage I am very apprehensive.

There is nothing to say that assisted suicide is going to be painless and peaceful.

This worries me too. I am aware that there are cases where a woman finds out during pregnancy that her unborn child has a serious medical issue and there can be an unspoken assumption that she will obviously want to terminate the pregnancy. I find this a really difficult issue. Is it her right to say no, I will give birth to a child who will have no quality of life by most people's standards, and who will need a lot of support that the rest of us have to pay for? I would say yes, it is her right, but if the Assisted Dying Bill passes into law that's another change to the context in which she makes that decision.

@CorneliaCupp yes, an ignorant comment. Maybe I am very naive, but I just don’t see the potential for people being euthanised here. And if the affected person is so ill that they can’t prevent being “euthanised” then surely they have no quality of life? Again, probably an ignorant comment. I apologise. I am trying to understand the objections.

Indeed

It's also probably the end of any improvements in palliative care - after all why bother when there's a much cheaper solution

Surely you must recognise that it's less painful and more peaceful than a slow drawn out death in agonising pain?

You can have as much palliative care as you want but ultimately most people die in pain and distress. I have a family member who was “kept alive” and asked us, his family, repeatedly to please just let him die. We were helpless and had to watch him sufffer. Humane? No

I am someone who absolutely WILL be in this position in a few years - I'm already in constant pain and my mobility is reducing dramatically.
I've had to give up my career and all of my social hobbies (socialising, museums, long walks, theme parks etc) and I'm not even 50 yet.

I also don't want to put my family through me committing suicide as a PP suggested it would be so easy to do - it isn't easy! I've been there, tried it numerous times ...... more than that though, it's the guilt that your family are left with, thinking there was something that could have been done.

I pray that serious safeguards come into place and that this is passed and made available, as I want to be able to say and decide when and how I die - I don't want to die crying and alone and feeling guilty that one of my relatives will discover me - I'd rather die in a peaceful sleep with those I love around me and when we've all had a chance to say what we need/want to.

It's an extremely emotive issue and I believe that nobody has the right to think their views are more important or valid than somebody elses, just like in the cases of abortion.

I have been by the side of several people I loved as they passed away calmly and peacefully, cared for by compassionate staff in various hospices. The eldest was my dear, gentle grandfather, who lost his life to bowel cancer. Others were much younger. Currently, I am regularly visiting my closest friend, who is receiving exceptional end-of-life care at home.

The most painful death I witnessed, however, was that of my beloved father. He died in an NHS hospital—not from illness alone, but through a process of starvation and dehydration, legally sanctioned under what was called the 'Liverpool Care Pathway.' The name may sound acceptable, even clinical, but the reality was anything but. The guilt of allowing that to happen will stay with me for the rest of my life.

What is needed is not another method of ending human lives—however much quicker or cheaper it might be compared to the Liverpool Pathway—but a genuine commitment to increasing funding for high-quality palliative care. Every person deserves to die with dignity, compassion, and proper support, not through neglect masked as medical protocol.

There is no guarantee when it comes to death. Many are peaceful, some are not. You cannot possibly know, and assisted dying does not increase that certainty.

Absolutely agree.

You can of course believe in God, but please don’t impose your beliefs on me.

Yes I was thinking of the Canadian Paralympian too.

I’m not religious or against assisted dying in principle but I don’t support this bill.

I think we just aren’t ready to do this without inflicting huge risks on the most vulnerable people in society who are the most reliant on public services. The people advocating for assisted dying tend to be highly privileged economically.

I am so worried to see that MPs have given it this 23 vote push towards the Lords today. It’s narrow but could be enough to give it momentum. This is the same Labour government that is aggressively trying to withdraw disability benefits when disabled people are highly likely to live in poverty already. Sending awful messages about who is valued and who isn’t.

I can’t bear to think what poverty and illness is going to do to people once assisted dying is an option. Especially when they have younger family members that they love who might need financial help to get housing.

We don’t have a well resourced NHS with spare capacity for doctors to gather expertise in this or even discuss it sensitively in the time scale that it would need. We don’t live in a situation where we have even been able to research the different types of drugs already used in different countries to end life. We have an ongoing cost of living crisis, huge unaffordable housing crisis, constant cuts to disability services, elderly care services and social care. It seems very dangerous to bring assisted dying into this.

I don't really understand what you're getting at here.

In The Netherlands a sedative is administered to put the patient in a coma, then once the medics have confirmed that the patient is in a deep coma, the drug is administered to stop breathing. This all happens very quickly and is obviously very closely monitored.

That is peaceful and painless, certainly in comparison to the alternative.

That can't happen. Hope that helps.

This is not a government bill. It's a Private Members' Bill. MPs and Lords have a free vote on this.

I’m not religious or against assisted dying in principle but I don’t support this bill.

Same. I’m not religious either but I think assisted dying can only be safely offered in a perfect society, which we are never going to live in. Assisted dying will look less and less like a free choice, the poorer and less supported you are.

What is needed is not another method of ending human lives—however much quicker or cheaper it might be compared to the Liverpool Pathway—but a genuine commitment to increasing funding for high-quality palliative care. Every person deserves to die with dignity, compassion, and proper support, not through neglect masked as medical protocol

Beautifully put, @Scuttlebut, except that as said the chances of palliative care being made any kind of priority have just disappeared IMO

Ironically I'd support assisted dying on a point of pure principle, but certainly not within our current systems and attitudes to the vulnerable