By Enyichukwu Enemanna
British lawmakers on Friday voted in favour of a landmark bill which will for the first time help terminally ill adults decide to end their lives.
The parliamentary voting which had 330 votes in favour and 275 against marks the beginning of months of debate and possible changes to the bill as it is expected to pass through the House of Commons and the upper house of Parliament, the House of Lords.
In 2015, similar legislation failed to pass that important first test.
If the bill is eventually passed into law, it will see the UK join the league of other countries such as Canada and Australia, as well as some US states.
It will also represent one of the most significant social reforms in a generation.
The bill would allow mentally competent adults in England and Wales with fewer than six months to live to request and receive help to die.
Assisted suicide is currently illegal in Britain and carries a prison sentence of up to 14 years.
That same sentence will remain for anyone found guilty of tricking, pressuring or coercing someone into making the choice if the bill is eventually passed.
Debate around the contentious bill, which will continue to be discussed in Parliament in the run up to the vote, has prompted an uncommon outpouring of politicians’ emotions and moral persuasions in a political system where voting usually happens along party lines.
Those in favour of the bill say such a law would relieve the unnecessary suffering of those with terminal illness and provide dignity and agency in a situation where the two are in short supply.
Opponents on the other hand say it could put the country on a slippery slope and place vulnerable people, such as the elderly or handicapped, at risk or put them under pressure to end their lives in order to not burden their loved ones.
Kim Leadbeater, an MP for the ruling Labour Party, proposed the bill, arguing it has “three layers of scrutiny.”
Two independent doctors and a judge will be needed to sign off on any decision before the state allows a patient end their life.
Former Labour Prime Minister Gordon Brown and three of his Conservative successors, Theresa May, Boris Johnson and Liz Truss have all publicly come out against the bill. But former-Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron this week said that he had reversed his opposition to the U.K. bill.
Writing in The Times of London newspaper, Cameron said the bill specifically excludes mental health or disability grounds and that the safeguards contained in the bill will allow it to meaningfully reduce human suffering.
Cameron also refuted arguments such as the one posed by the current health secretary Wes Streeting — that the expense and additional administration could add to pressure on the country’s National Health Service.
The former prime minister wrote that the bill would apply to a very small number of cases and that “the NHS exists to serve patients and the public, not the other way around.”
