The UK introduces bill to legalize assisted suicide.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

A long-awaited bill to legalize assisted suicide in England and Wales was introduced and is likely to be debated on November 29. A report by Paul Godfrey for UPI news on November 2 states:

The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, a so-called private members' bill introduced by Labor MP Kim Leadbeater, would legalize assisted dying for mentally competent patients in England and Wales who have made a "clear, settled and informed decision" and have not been subject to any form of coercion or pressure.

Kim Leadbeater states that this is the tightest assisted dying bill in the world. Godfrey reported:

The patient must make two witnessed and signed declarations of their desire to die and two doctors must independently certify, a minimum of seven days apart, that the patient meets the requirements before one of them must go in front of a High Court judge.

The judge will have the power to cross-examine the patient and any other person germane to the case before signing off on the request. After that, there would be a further 14-day cooling-off period.

The Euthanasia Prevention Coalition will soon provide a further analysis of the bill.

From the outset the concept that the person has made a "clear, settled and informed decision" to be killed and has not been subject to any form of coercion or pressure will be impossible to ensure. These words are only a "sales technique" to convince politicians to support the bill.