Assisted dying could become law in parts of Britain in 2025

By Georgia Banjo, Britain correspondent, The Economist

Editor’s note: On November 29th a majority of MPs voted in favour of a bill that would legalise assisted dying for terminally ill people in England and Wales. The reform will face further scrutiny in Parliament before it becomes law.

When Esther Rantzen, a television personality with terminal lung cancer, called for the right to die, she joined a long line of advocates for the cause. Despite widespread public support, several attempts to change the law have failed. In 2025 that pattern will be broken: several jurisdictions within Britain are likely to legalise assisted dying. These will include some or all of England and Wales, Scotland, and the British crown dependencies of the Isle of Man and Jersey.

In Scotland, where an assisted-dying bill has been proposed by Liam McArthur, a Liberal Democrat member of the Scottish Parliament, a final vote could be held by the end of 2025. In Jersey (one of the Channel Islands between Britain and France), where a bill is being drafted, a debate could be held as soon as the summer, with legislation following shortly after. The Isle of Man is perhaps the furthest along. There, a bill should be given royal assent at some point in 2025, though it will not be implemented until 2027.

Westminster, by contrast, has been slower to debate an assisted-dying bill. But the idiosyncrasies of parliamentary process mean it could be the first British parliament to pass one. Kim Leadbeater, a Labour MP, introduced her bill to the House of Commons on October 16th, and a debate was scheduled for November 29th.

In previous parliaments, bills have been voted down by cautious MPs, or starved of time by sceptical governments with control of the legislative agenda. This time, though, many new Labour MPs appear supportive, seeing the issue in the way previous generations of lawmakers saw abortion or gay rights. The prime minister, Sir Keir Starmer, himself a supporter, says he will grant MPs a free vote on the issue.

New Zealand and parts of Australia have recently passed laws in the face of resistance from some palliative-care doctors, disability activists and faith groups. Opponents point to Canada, where assisted dying is no longer restricted to the terminally ill (as it is in the American state of Oregon), but is available to people with disabilities who are deemed to be suffering unbearably.

Polls show that two-thirds of British adults support a change in the law, and in reality no British politician will advocate for a regime as broad as Canada’s. All proposed legislation follows Oregon’s narrower model: an applicant must be terminally ill, and their death must be approved by at least two doctors.

The debate will be intense, but change now seems inevitable. France and Ireland are on similar paths. In 2025 some Britons will be given the right to die, signalling that politicians have caught up with public opinion on this controversial subject. ■