UK lawmakers approve assisted suicide for dying or terminally ill patients

After an emotive and at times impassioned debate, Britain’s lawmakers voted to allow assisted dying for terminally ill patients in England and Wales under strict conditions, opening the way to one of the most profound social changes in the country in decades, reported The New York Times.

By 330 votes to 275, members of Parliament gave their support to a bill that would permit doctors to help some terminally ill patients to end their lives.

Friday’s vote was not the final say on the matter for Parliament, as it will now be scrutinized in parliamentary committees and amendments to the bill may be put forward. But it is a landmark political moment, setting the stage for a significant shift that some have likened to Britain’s legalization of abortion in 1967 and the abolition of the death penalty in 1969.

The new legislation would apply to a narrow group: Applicants would have to be over 18, diagnosed with a terminal illness and have been given no more than six months to live. Two doctors and a judge would be required to give their approval, and the fatal drugs would have to be self-administered.

Assisted dying is already legal in a handful of European countries, as well as in Canada, New Zealand, 10 U.S. states and the District of Columbia.

The bill debated on Friday was proposed by a Labour Party member of parliament, Kim Leadbeater, but lawmakers were given the freedom to vote with their consciences, instead of being expected to vote along a party-line, meaning the outcome was impossible to predict.

ImageKim Leadbeater in London last month. The Labour lawmaker told Parliament that her legislation addressed “one of the most significant issues of our time.”Credit...Jaimi Joy/Reuters

During almost five hours of debate on Friday in a crowded parliamentary chamber, raw divisions were revealed over an issue that transcended political affiliations.

Meg Hillier, a Labour lawmaker, said the legislation would “cross a Rubicon,” by involving the state in the death of some of those it governs. “This is a fundamental change in the relationship between the state and the citizen, and the patient and their doctor,” she said.

But Kit Malthouse, a Conservative lawmaker, argued in support of the bill, saying, “The deathbed for far too many is a place of misery, torture and degradation, a reign of blood and vomit and tears.” He added, “I see no compassion and beauty in that — only profound human suffering.”

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Pennsylvania assisted suicide law rarely used

Gus Yiambilis is charged with homicide and causing/aiding in suicide in the carbon monoxide poisoning death of his 59-year-old mother, reported the Bucks County Courier Times.

Yiambilis’ case might be the first prosecution in Bucks County, Pennsylvania for assisting in a suicide, a rarely used felony charge in Pennsylvania. Some legal experts believe the case has the potential to break new ground in the right-to-die movement, which has largely focused on assisted suicide cases involving the elderly, the terminally ill or people with life-altering disabilities.

Katherine Pearson, an attorney and a Penn State Dickinson School of Law expert on legal issues facing older adults, described the Yiambilis case as “extremely rare,” since neither mother nor son was physically disabled or terminally ill, but simply expressed a desire to die.

“Where there was no indication of suffering, physical suffering, or terminal illness, I can’t think of one that I’ve seen,” she said. “There may be a proof problem for the prosecution on that side of the case.”

Nationally, legal experts note that arrests for assisting in suicide are less common than years ago, which some believe signals changing attitudes about end-of-life decisions, despite existing laws that outlaw it in all but five U.S. states.

Statewide, 53 people were convicted of causing/aiding in suicide between 2004 and 2012, according to data from the Pennsylvania Commission on Sentencing. The data reflects sentences reported to the commission through its secure Web application.

Most of those convicted — 39 — were sentenced to state prison. Only 10 were sentenced to so-called “restorative sanctions,” non-confinement sentences that include fines, according to the commission.

Assisting in suicide has been a crime in Pennsylvania since 1973 and the law specifically notes that survivors of suicide pacts can be guilty under the statute.

Under the law, a person can be charged in either of two ways: criminal homicide for intentionally causing someone to kill himself by force, duress or deception or, as Yiambilis is charged, for aiding or soliciting suicide. That’s when a person intentionally aids or solicits another person to commit suicide or their behavior causes someone to attempt or commit suicide.

Yiambilis also is charged with homicide, but not under the assisting in suicide law.

Pennsylvania District Attorneys Association executive director Richard Long said that he has not heard of many prosecutions under the law.

“It’s one of those things that a district attorney has to make a determination on regarding the facts and determinations involving a suicide,” Long added.

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