Il Nuovo Postiglione - UK MPs debate assisted dying law ahead of key vote

Protesters for and against the legislation demonstrated outside parliament, as inside MPs packed out the lower House of Commons chamber to consider one of Britain's most emotive and significant bills in years.

MPs will either approve sending the legislation to the upper House of Lords for the next step -- and further scrutiny -- or end it entirely during a crucial vote expected around 2:30 pm (1330 GMT).

Labour MP Kim Leadbeater, who has proposed the bill, said changing the law would "offer a compassionate and safe choice" for terminally ill people.

The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill would allow assisted suicide in England and Wales for adults with an incurable illness who have a life expectancy of fewer than six months.

They would have to be able to administer the life-ending substance themselves, and any patient's wish to die would have to be signed off by two doctors and a panel of experts.

A change in the law would see Britain emulate several other countries in Europe and elsewhere that allow some form of assisted dying, including Belgium and the Netherlands.

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Supporters say euthanasia would give the terminally ill greater protections and choice at the end of their lives, but critics worry that vulnerable people could be coerced into dying.

Outside in Parliament Square, protesters waved placards with slogans including "Let us choose" and "Don't make doctors killers".

David Walker, 82, said he supported changing the law because he saw his wife of 60 years suffer for three years at the end of her life.

"That's why I'm here, because I can't help her anymore, but I can help other people who are going through the same thing, because if you have no quality of life, you have nothing," he told AFP.

Elizabeth Burden, a 52-year-old doctor, said she feared the bill could open "a floodgate" of people being forced to end their lives and urged the government to focus on providing palliative care instead.

"It is a slippery slope. Once we allow this. Everything will slip down because dementia patients, all patients... are vulnerable," she told AFP.

A YouGov poll of 2,003 adults, surveyed last month and published on Thursday, suggested the public overwhelmingly supports changing the law, with 73 percent in favour.

MPs backed the proposed legislation by 330 to 275 votes at an initial vote in parliament last November.

Since then the bill has undergone several changes, including applying a ban on adverts for assisted dying and allowing all health workers to opt out of helping someone end their life.

MPs have also added a safeguard which would prevent a person being eligible "solely as a result of voluntarily stopping eating or drinking", ruling out people with anorexia.

Several lawmakers in the 650-seat parliament have subsequently switched positions, and parties are not telling them how to vote, making the outcome difficult to predict.

- Undecideds -

An ITV News tracker of around half the parliamentarians estimates that 162 MPs plan to vote for changing the law, with 152 against. Some 22 remain undecided with another 23 due to abstain.

Both the House of Commons and the House of Lords need to approve the legislation before the end of the current parliamentary year, likely sometime in the autumn, or the bill will fail.

If it passes and receives royal assent, then it would be four years before an assisted dying service is implemented.

A government impact assessment published this month estimated that approximately 160 to 640 assisted deaths could take place in the first year, rising to a possible 4,500 in a decade.

If he votes, Prime Minister Keir Starmer is expected to vote in favour but several of his top ministerial team, including the health and justice secretaries, have publicly opposed changing the law.

Assisted suicide currently carries a maximum prison sentence of 14 years in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Separate legislation is going through the devolved Scottish parliament, while the Isle of Man at the end of March became the first British territory to pass an assisted dying bill.

UK MPs last considered changing the law in 2015 and Leadbeater warned it could be another decade before the issue returns to parliament if MPs reject her bill.

G.Palmiero--INP