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Friday, the British Parliament voted in favor of a bill aimed at legalizing assisted death.
The result came after hours of emotional debate and references to personal stories in the House, and it followed a vote in November which approved the legislation in principle. This vote was closer: 314 legislators in favor of 291 against the bill, compared to a division of 330-275 eight months ago.
The law “adults in the terminal phase (end of life)” would give mentally competent adults and in terminal phase in England and in Wales with six months or less to live the right to choose to end their lives with medical aid.
Voting puts Great Britain on the right track to follow Australia, Canada and other countries, as well as certain American states, to allow assisted death.
Supporters say that this will give dignity and compassion for people with suffering, but adversaries fear that vulnerable people can be forced to end their lives.
Emma Bray, who suffers from a snowmobile disease, said she hoped that the result would help people in her state.
Bray, who is 42 years old and has two children, said that she was planning to hung up to death next month to help relieve pain after being informed that she had only six months to live.
“This result will mean that people will not have to go through the same suffering that I have faced,” she told Reuters.
“A dark day for our country”: priest
The bill is now going to the upper chamber of Great Britain, the Chamber of Lords, where it will undergo months of examination. Although there may be other modifications, the non -elected lords will be reluctant to block the legislation which has been adopted by elected members of the House of Commons.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labor Government was neutral on legislation, which means that politicians voted according to their conscience rather than party parties. Starmer had previously declared that he was in favor of authorizing him assisted death.
Opponents of the bill had argued that sick people could think that they should end their lives for fear of being a burden for their families and their society, and that some legislators withdrew their support after the initial vote last year, saying that guarantees had been weakened.
John Howard, a Catholic priest who led a dozen people in prayer outside the parliament during the vote, said that he feared that some people are forced to end their life early under pressure from family members.
“I feel a lot of sorrow and concern, especially for the most vulnerable and the most disabled,” he told Reuters. “It’s a dark day for our country.”
In the initial plan, an assisted death would have required the approval of the court. This has been replaced by a requirement for judgment by a panel including a social worker, a main legal figure and a psychiatrist, who is considered by some as a watering.
The labor legislator who proposed the bill, Kim Leadbeater, said that the legislation still offered some of the most robust protections in the world against the coercion of vulnerable people.
“I am fully confident in the bill,” she told the BBC after the vote. “The guarantees are extremely in -depth, extremely robust, and I am convinced that it will help the people he needs to help.”
Watching the voting in November reported a likely passage:
The legislators of the United Kingdom voted in favor of a bill to authorize adults in the terminal phase in England and in the land of Wales to end their lives with medical aid, legislation which aroused a national debate on the dignity of death and end-of-life care.
Opinion polls show that a majority of British have helped die in principle.
Hundreds of activists in favor and against the legislation met outside the Parliament on Friday to look at the vote on their mobile phones.
