This Friday, the British Parliament approved a law to legalize euthanasia in a motion in which MPs were free to vote and which divided the parties and ministers of the Labor government. With great uncertainty until the end about the result, 330 deputies voted for and 275 against.
The new legislation will mean that an adult, suffering from a terminal illness and whose prognosis gives them less than six months of survival, will be able to end their life with the authorization of two doctors and a judge. the British High Court of England. and Wales (Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own rules on this matter.) The ill person must make full use of their mental faculties and make their decision without family, economic or medical pressure, and it is they who must take the medicine to stop dying even if it is prepared by the doctor. (what we call “passive euthanasia”.). The application of this law will be detailed over the next two years. At that point, debate can continue and amendments can be presented; Additionally, public health will need to provide more resources to manage what is called “assisted dying.”
Until now, under the law in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, helping a terminally ill person to die is considered a crime punishable by up to 14 years in prison , according to a law from 1961. Scotland does not have a specific law, but there may be some. be sanctions using other regulations. However, the public prosecutor’s office already has a policy of not prosecuting these cases of “assisted” death or suicide, unless there are clear indications that there was pressure on the person. sick or it is a homicide. Between 2009 and 2024, there were 187 cases of “assisted suicide,” but most were dropped without any charges being filed. There are currently six ongoing cases, four of which resulted in charges and one resulting in an acquittal.
Given the ethical dilemmas on the issue, MPs could vote this Friday freely according to their conscience and without instructions from their parties. This is called a “free vote” and is something that has happened with other issues considered controversial in the country, such as same-sex marriage, in vitro fertilization, age of sexual consent, parliamentary salaries and fox hunting.
In the case of euthanasia, it was also legislation introduced by an MP, Labor’s Kim Leadbeater and the Conservative Kit Malthouse, and not by the government. Prime Minister Keir Starmer voted in 2015 in favor of a similar law which was later rejected by the majority, but in this case he did not want to participate in the debate or express his opinion in public before the vote so as not to condition the members of his cabinet or his party. Starmer showed up just for the vote on Friday and voted in favour.
Division
Health Minister Wes Streeting and Justice Minister Shabana Mahmood were against the proposal while others, such as Energy Secretary and former leader Ed Miliband, were in favor. In the case of the Minister of Health, his reservations come from the lack of sufficient resources and his priority to improve palliative care as a priority. The Minister of Justice expressed her doubts about the pressures that a sick person may feel in relation to their family, particularly when it comes to economically and socially disadvantaged people.
Within the parties, voices were raised on both sides and, before the vote, many were undecided. This Friday, in the guest gallery and on the street, there were activists, patients and family members supporting both sides.
The current leader of the Conservative Party, Kemi Badenoch, opposed the law because, although she says she favors the freedom of people to “control the way they die”, she does not believe in “the ability of ‘State to manage this’. type of complexity. » Jeremy Corbyn, former leader of the Labor Party and now an independent MP, also voted against on similar grounds.
Ed Davey, leader of the Liberal Democrats, the third largest party, voted against. Caring for sick or dependent people is one of the issues closest to his heart and, during the last elections, he spoke of his personal experience dedicated to caring for his mother since his adolescence and now for his disabled son. He now says that, according to his mother, the priority should be to improve palliative care.
Nigel Farage, the leader of the far-right Reform Party, voted against, but his deputy voted for.
There was no consensus among former prime ministers either. Former Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron supported the motion while Labor’s Gordon Brown and Conservatives Boris Johnson and Liz Truss spoke against.
After two unsuccessful attempts, in 2015 in the House of Commons and in 2022 in the House of Lords, the defenders of this law presented it as a question of individual freedom and compassion for those who suffer.
“I think we’ll look at this in 10 years and ask ‘why didn’t this happen sooner?’ I think there are people who will look back and think about the way they voted,” Leadbeater, the MP who introduced the text, explained in an interview with the newspaper. Tutor. According to her, it is a right similar to the right to abortion since it concerns a person’s right over their own body.
The majority of the population supports the existence of a law decriminalizing assisted suicide for the terminally ill, according to the survey institute YouGov. There are virtually no differences across ideological leanings, although there is increased support as the age of respondents increases.
Other countries
In Europe, euthanasia is legal, with different nuances and requirements, in Spain, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg. Additionally, other countries, such as Austria, Finland, and Norway, allow so-called passive euthanasia, which allows patients, in certain circumstances, to refuse medical help that keeps them alive . Medical assistance in dying is also legal in parts of the United States, Canada, Colombia, Australia and New Zealand. Portugal passed a law to decriminalize euthanasia in 2021, which still needs to be developed. Similar laws have been debated in Ireland and France.
During the debate ahead of the vote in the House of Commons, Leadbeater used the example of the 31 jurisdictions where assisted dying in various forms is legal as an argument against those who say the law opens a slippery slope that will increase cases in which more people will feel pressured or pressure their family members to die. “No jurisdiction that has passed terminal illness laws has expanded its scope,” he said.
Kit Malthouse, the Conservative MP who presented the law with her, recalled what is already happening in other countries: “I am married to a Canadian and I can tell you that they love their children like we do. The idea that Australians, New Zealanders, Spaniards, Austrians don’t love their families or even the society they live in is offensive, and we cannot pretend that we are special or different here.
“We are a democracy with 1,000 years of history,” said the MP, who pointed to the seats where there were activists in favor of the law. “It is not beyond our power to design legislation that gives them what they want and protects those who we believe should be protected.” »
