Keir Starmer backs Esther Rantzen’s requires legislation change on assisted dying
Keir Starmer has backed Dame Esther Rantzen’s requires a change within the legislation on assisted dying.
The Labour chief mentioned there are “grounds for changing the law” on assisted dying. Mr Starmer, who backed a change within the legislation the final time the difficulty was thought of within the Commons in 2015, acknowledged it must be addressed fastidiously. He has mentioned a free vote in parliament “seems appropriate”.
“On the question of assisted dying, there are obviously strong views both ways on this, which I respect,” he advised reporters throughout a go to to Estonia. “And that’s why traditionally, this has always been dealt with with a private member’s bill and a free vote and that seems appropriate to me. I personally do think there are grounds for changing the law, we have to be careful, but it would have to be, I think, a free vote on an issue where there are such divided and strong views.”
It comes after TV veteran Dame Esther mentioned she was contemplating ending her life on the Swiss clinic Dignitas if her remedy for stage 4 lung most cancers fails to work. She advised the BBC’s Today podcast: “I thought, well, if the next scan says nothing’s working I might buzz off to Zurich but it puts my family and friends in a difficult position as they would want to go with me. The police might prosecute them.
“My household say it’s my selection. I defined to them that I don’t need their final recollections of me to be painful. If you watch somebody you’re keen on having a foul demise, that reminiscence obliterates all of the blissful instances.” She also called for MPs to get a free vote on the issue, saying: “It’s necessary the legislation catches up with what the nation desires.”
Michael Gove mentioned earlier this week Parliament ought to maintain a contemporary vote on assisted dying following Dame Esther’s name for a free vote on permitting terminally ailing individuals to die with dignity. The Levelling Up Secretary mentioned he was “not but persuaded” of the case for assisted dying but said he would listen to representations from others on whether the law needed to change. And he said it would be “applicable” for the Commons to look at it again.
A free vote – or unwhipped vote – in Parliament is one in which MPs or members of the Lords are not put under pressure to vote a certain way by their party leaders. Free votes have traditionally been allowed on ethical issues that are seen as a matter of conscience.
Assisted dying is illegal in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, and carries a maximum prison sentence of 14 years. MPs overwhelmingly voted against changing the law to let doctors help terminally ill people end their lives in 2015.
