Campaigners for an assisted dying law are hoping to make 2024 a turning point in the public debate about the measure in the UK, amid a flurry of attempts to change the law across the British Isles.
Efforts to create new rights for terminally ill people to seek assistance in ending their lives are due to take place in the Isle of Man and Jersey in the new year, with a bill also being debated in Scotland.
Advocates claim they can achieve a “tipping point” next year should laws allowing terminally ill, mentally competent adults to choose an assisted death take a step closer. It comes after the Observer last week published an impassioned plea by actor Diana Rigg to legalise assisted dying, in a message recorded shortly before her death three years ago.
In her message, the star of The Avengers and Game of Thrones urged the authorities to give “human beings true agency over their own bodies at the end of life”. It has prompted renewed debate and comes amid bids to introduce new legislation.
Sarah Wootton, the chief executive of Dignity in Dying, said: “We start the new year with bills moving forward in Scotland, Jersey and the Isle of Man, and there is a realistic prospect that some British citizens will have a legal option for assisted dying as early as 2025.
“This is an issue and a movement that’s time has come … the UK is approaching a tipping point in the campaign. It is our great hope that one day, we will look back on 2024 as the year that the deadlock between the huge public support for reform and Westminster’s inaction was finally broken.”
The Isle of Man bill means it could become the first part of the British Isles to legalise assisted dying for terminally ill patients. The proposals are being scrutinised by a committee and will report back early next year. In Scotland, Liberal Democrat MSP Liam McArthur’s members’ bill would give certain terminally ill patients the right to assistance to end their lives, rather than being forced abroad.
Jersey has already voted in favour of the principle of legalising assisted dying and proposals are being drafted by the government. A vote is expected in the summer, with draft legislation to follow.
However, opponents of the measure say that all the concerns they hold remain as relevant as ever – including the difficulties in defining those who would be eligible, as well as the risk that vulnerable people would feel pressured into ending their life. They have also raised concerns that an assisted dying law in Canada has been too broad. Last time an assisted dying bill was debated in Westminster in 2015, it was voted down.
Alistair Thompson, spokesperson for the Care Not Killing group, claimed that a recent survey suggested support for assisted dying measures had waned. “The issue we have seen elsewhere is that over time, laws and the definitions involved are expanded. What has been interesting with the Scotland bill is the fact that the three main party leaders have all come out against it.”
Those pushing for a legal change also hope that the general election may also prompt debate on the issue. Keir Starmer was the director of public prosecutions when a decision was made not to prosecute the parents of Daniel James. The 23-year-old died in a Swiss clinic in 2008. He had been paralysed in March 2007 during rugby training.
However, there is no indication that Starmer has an inclination to reopen a further debate on assisted dying, which has previously been regarded as a matter of conscience for MPs whenever a vote is held on the issue.
