UK to vote on assisted dying: What is it? Why is it so contentious?

Today, November 29 is a big day for the United Kingdom. MPs are due to debate and vote on proposed legislation that could make assisted dying legal in the UK.

If passed, the UK will join a list of countries, which include the Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, and Luxembourg that allow assisted dying.

But what exactly is assisted dying? How does it differ from euthanasia? What does the proposed law in the UK state?

We get you the answers.

What does assisted dying mean?

There’s a lot of confusion over what is assisted dying and how it differs from euthanasia. The act of assisted dying refers to a person who is terminally ill receiving lethal drugs from a medical practitioner, which they administer themselves.

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Meanwhile, euthanasia is the act of deliberately ending a person’s life to relieve suffering in which a lethal drug is administered by a physician. Patients may not be terminally ill. There are two types: voluntary euthanasia, where a patient consents; and non-voluntary, where they cannot because, for example, they are in a coma.

As Richard Huxtable, professor of medical ethics and law at the University of Bristol, told The Guardian, “The main difference is who performs the final, fatal act.”

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Activists argue that assisted dying allows a person with a terminal condition the choice to control their death if they decide their suffering is unbearable. They state that along with good care, dying people who are terminally ill and mentally competent adults deserve the choice to control the timing and manner of their death.

Some experts note that assisted dying can be used to mean both euthanasia and assisted suicide; however, some campaign groups use it to refer only to assisted suicide of terminally ill people.

Where is assisted dying and its variants allowed?

While the UK will debate on the law of assisted dying today, there are already some countries that permit it. According to the Dignity in Dying campaign group, more than 200 million people around the world have legal access to some form of assisted dying.

The Netherlands became the first country in the world to legalise active euthanasia in 2002, whereby doctors administered lethal doses of drugs to patients suffering from an incurable condition. The Dutch nation also legalised assisted suicide, where patients can receive help to take their own life voluntarily.

Belgium was the second country to adopt euthanasia and assisted suicide in 2002. Countries such as Luxembourg and Spain also allow for it.

Today, the Alpine nation of Switzerland is the go-to destination for patients from around Europe looking for assistance to end their suffering. It allowed for assisted suicide since 1942.

In the US, 11 states — Oregon, California, New Mexico, Colorado, Washington, Hawaii, New Jersey, Vermont, Maine and Washington DC — allow “physician-assisted dying”.

In Canada, voluntary euthanasia, which is called medical assistance in dying is legal. The North American country mandates that it can be provided by a doctor or nurse practitioner, either in person or through the prescription of drugs for self-administration.

What is the current situation in the UK?

In the UK, euthanasia and assisted suicide are illegal. Euthanasia can lead to a murder charge and assisted suicide could result in a sentence of up to 14 years in prison.

However, interestingly, King George V died by euthanasia, it is reported. The royal’s health was on the decline and in 1936 it emerged that he was close to dying, with his chief doctor, Lord Dawson saying that the king’s death was imminent.

Decades later, when Dawson’s personal notes were revealed by his biographer Francis Watson, it emerged that King George V’s death was engineered by Dawson when he gave the monarch a lethal mix of morphine and cocaine to hasten his death.

“Hours of waiting just for the mechanical end when all that is really life has departed only exhausts the onlookers and keeps them so strained that they cannot avail themselves of the solace of thought, communion or prayer. I therefore decided to determine the end,” he wrote.

What is the UK’s proposed law on assisted dying now?

Today, the UK will debate backbench Labour MP Kim Leadbeater’s Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, which could change the legal position on the matter in the country.

The proposed legislation states that anyone who wants to end their life has to meet some conditions:

1. the person must be over 18 and live in England, Wales, and be registered with a GP for at least 12 months

2. the person must have the mental capacity to make the choice

3. the person should be expected to die within six months

4. two independent doctors have to sign off on this assessment

The legislation further states that a high court judge will have to rule on the request and a patient will have to wait 14 days before acting.

The law also mentions that a doctor would prepare the substance to end the person’s life but the person would administer it themselves.

Kim Leadbeater, the MP who introduced the bill, said the country needs this kind of legislation because some people “have a horrible, harrowing death”.

What are the arguments for and against assisted dying?

The issue of assisted dying has been hotly debated in the UK as well as the world. Leadbeater’s legislation has found support from campaigners and some British MPs. David Cameron, the former British PM, supports the bill.

Some activists support the bill, saying that people with terminal illnesses should be granted the ability to choose how and when they die – what they call a ‘dignified death.’

However, other former PMs — Liz Truss, Boris Johnson and Theresa May and Gordon Brown — and other MPs have spoken out against the bill. They argue that the legislation would have a negative effect on “vulnerable people”.

Wes Streeting, UK’s health secretary, also argued that assisted dying would be another financial burden on the National Health Service (NHS). He told T_imes Radio:_ “There would be resource implications for making assisted dying legal. And those choices would come at the expense of other choices.”

With inputs from agencies