MPs have voted in favour of proposals to legalise assisted dying in England and Wales.
The bill will now face many more months of debate and scrutiny by MPs and peers, who could choose to amend it, with the approval of both Houses of Parliament needed for it to become law.
It is also possible the bill could fall and not become law at all.
The bill – called the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill – would make it legal for over-18s who are terminally ill to be given assistance to end their own life.
But there are requirements:
- They must be resident of England and Wales and be registered with a GP for at least 12 months
- They must have the mental capacity to make the choice and be deemed to have expressed a clear, settled and informed wish, free from coercion or pressure
- They must be expected to die within six months
- They must make two separate declarations, witnessed and signed (by them or a proxy on their behalf), about their wish to die
- Two independent doctors must be satisfied the person is eligible – and there must be at least seven days between the doctors’ assessments
- A High Court judge must hear from at least one of the doctors and can also question the dying person, or anyone else they consider appropriate. There must be a further 14 days after the judge has made the ruling (although this can be shortened to 48 hours in some circumstances)
Under the bill, a doctor could prepare the “approved” substance (the bill does not detail what medication this is) but the person themselves must take it.
No doctor or anyone else would be allowed to administer the medication to the terminally ill person.
The doctor would stay with the person until they had self-administered the substance and died (or the doctor determines the procedure has failed).
The person could decide not to take it, in which case the doctor would have to remove the substance immediately.
Doctors would also not be under any obligation to take part in the assisted dying process.
This is called physician-assisted suicide. Voluntary euthanasia is different and is where a health professional administers the drugs to the patient.
Deaths covered by the assisted suicide bill would not need to be investigated by a coroner.
But the bill would make it illegal for someone to pressure, coerce or use dishonesty to get someone to make a declaration that they wish to end their life or to induce someone to self-administer an approved substance.
If someone is found guilty of either of these actions, they could face a jail sentence of up to 14 years.
What’s not included in the bill is how much it the system would cost, who would pay and what the workload would be.
And there is no detail about the judicial process – namely, how the evidence would be put before the High Court judge.
Lord Thomas, former Lord Chief Justice, told the BBC’s Today Programme that it cannot be a “rubber stamping process” and judges must be satisfied there is no coercion.
The person seeking assisted dying would be advised to consider telling their family and GP, but would not legally have to.