Grapevine

UK parliament to consider assisted dying law this month

Nine years after the failure of the last assisted dying bill and amid a change in public opinion, MPs to vote according to their conscience.

The UK parliament will consider a proposal to legalise assisted dying, nine years after rejecting a similar proposal.

Kim Leadbeater, a member of parliament with the ruling Labour party, said she would introduce a bill on October 16 to give terminally ill people a “choice” over end-of-life care and provide more protections for them and their loved ones.

Leadbeater said British law on the issue had not been updated in 60 years.

“Somebody with a terminal condition and very little time left has only limited options,” she wrote in The Guardian newspaper. “Parliament should now be able to consider a change in the law that would offer reassurance and relief – and most importantly, dignity and choice – to people in the last months of their lives.”