U.K. Parliament rejects bill to allow assisted dying for the terminally ill

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Supporters said Friday they believe they eventually will prevail, pointing to the large number of members absent for Friday’s vote.

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If an identical measure ultimately becomes law, it would allow an adult in England or Wales, who is medically judged to have fewer than six months to live, to apply for the right to administer their own lethal injection. Doctors would have to approve the request but would not give the shot. The applicant would have to make their wishes clear in two separate declarations, both witnessed and signed.

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Two independent physicians then would assess the patient to confirm the diagnosis and assure that the person was informed and not being coerced.

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If they approve the request, the case would be reviewed by a three-person panel of judges, social workers and psychiatrists, who must unanimously sign off. Doctors, pharmacists and nursing homes would have the option not to participate in the program.

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Public support for assisted dying is strong, with polls showing three-quarters of Britons support legalizing some form of the concept “in principle.”

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But politicians, professionals and even the terminally ill themselves have been divided.

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The archbishops of the British Catholic Church and the Church of England both argued against it. Some medical associations have remained neutral, while others have expressed concerns about protections for the vulnerable.

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One change from last year’s vote is the occupant of 10 Downing Street. Then-Prime Minsister Keir Starmer voted for the bill. But Andy Burnham, who took over the top job in July, was less supportive, saying that strengthening palliative and social care should come before the vote on assisted dying.

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Burnham abstained from Friday’s vote to avoid, he said, swaying other Labour lawmakers, who were free to vote their conscience.

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Britain now remains outside a growing list of jurisdictions that allow some version of voluntary euthanasia.

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In the United States, medically assisted dying, which first became legal in Oregon in 1997 after the Supreme Court left the issue to the states, is now authorized in 13 states plus the District of Columbia.

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Austria, Belgium, Spain and the Netherlands have laws allowing patients – and in some cases doctors – to administer a fatal injection or oral drug, some without requiring a terminal diagnosis.

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French legislators recently approved a law that allows citizens and residents to petition for death.

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Switzerland, where assisted dying has been legal since 1942, is in a category of its own with more than 500 “suicide tourists” a year traveling there to take advantage of its system.

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One vocal British activist, the former broadcaster Esther Rantzen, has pushed for Britain to adopt the new law, saying that she herself would use it to end her struggle with cancer.

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Now 86, she said the delays have left her too frail even to travel to Switzerland. Rantzen called for the bill to pass so more Britons have the choice to end their lives, not just those who are healthy and affluent enough to travel abroad.

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“By the time life did become unbearable, I was too physically fragile to make the journey,” she wrote this week in the Guardian.

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