Six-month life expectancy and self-administration of drugs among assisted dying proposals
A six-month expected lifespan and the ability to take the fatal drugs will be requirements for someone to end their own life under proposed assisted dying legislation.
Someone with disability or mental health issues will not be eligible for assisted dying under the plans, published in the End of Life Bill.
MPs will have their first vote on the proposals on 29 November.
If the bill passes, then amendments and changes will be considered before further votes in the Commons and Lords take place – with many months before it would be expected to come into effect.
Politics latest: Follow as assisted dying bill published
The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill was proposed by Labour MP Kim Leadbeater.
MPs and the public can now scrutinize Ms Leadbeater’s bill, which would apply to England and Wales.
After promising “robust safeguards”, it will be decided by a “free vote” – MPs will be able to vote however they like and won’t be forced to follow party lines.
The potential requirements for ending one’s life would include:
• Being aged 18 and over, and having been registered with a GP for at least 12 months;
• Have the “mental capacity” to make the decision to die;
• Being terminally ill, and expected to die within six months;
• Have a “clear, settled and informed” wish to die “at every stage of the process” – which is “free from coercion or pressure”;
• Make two declarations of their desire to end their own life, both witnessed and signed;
• Two “independent” doctors must confirm eligibility for assisted dying, with the ability to consult a specialist if needs be;
• A High Court judge will then consider the application, with the power to question the doctors, patient and anyone else they feel the need to;
• A seven-day wait time between getting clinical sign-off, and a 14-day wait from judicial approval – unless the person’s life is expected to end sooner.
These proposals have come about following recommendations and debate in parliament in recent years.
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What is assisted dying?
14 years for law breakers
Supporters of the bill say it goes further in outlining the role doctors will play, as well as providing oversight from judges, than previous attempts to legalise assisted dying.
The guidance for doctors includes them being satisfied the person is eligible to end their own life, and has made the decision without being “coerced or pressured”.
It will also state that clinicians should ensure the patient is making an “informed choice” – including being made aware of other options for treatment like palliative and hospice care.
Doctors will not be forced to take part in the process, according to the bill.
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The medicine that will end the patient’s life will need to be self-administered, with doctors not allowed to do so.
The bill will also include punishments of up to 14 years in prison for those who break the law.
This would include coercing someone into ending their own life or pressuring them to take life-ending medicine.
The health secretary and chief medical officer will oversee assisted dying and report on it to parliament.
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Ms Leadbeater told Sky News: “Well, this will be the most robust piece of legislation in terms of assisted dying in the world.
“There are layers and layers of safeguards – we’ve got two doctors, we’ve got a high court judge who will be involved in the process and would speak to the doctor.
“So there’ll be consultation – very, very strict criteria in the first instance of who would be eligible for the bill.”
Labour MP Kim Leadbeater
Ms Leadbeater denied that she had been forced to bring forward publication of the bill following concerns from MPs they would not have enough time to go over the details.
She said the schedule had been brought forward: “I haven’t brought the schedule forward, and I’m not concerned about that [the times scale] at all, no.
“There was a procedure to go through and I’ve gone through a really robust piece of research consultation, speaking to lots of different organizations and groups and individuals with a wide variety of views.”
The Labour MP was also asked if it was a problem that health secretary Wes Streeting had spoken of his opposition to the bill.
She pointed out that the prime minister says “he’s in favour of changing the law” – and that she believes now is the right time for a change.
Sky News can reveal that the government has rowed back on a national compensation scheme for victims of child sexual abuse, despite it being promised under the previous Conservative administration.
Warning – this story contains references to sexual and physical abuse
A National Redress Scheme was one of 20 key recommendations made by the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA), but a Home Office report reveals the government has scrapped it because of the cost.
Marie, who is 71, suffered alleged sexual, physical, and emotional abuse at Greenfield House Convent in St Helens, Merseyside, between 1959 and 1962, and is still fighting for compensation.
Greenfield House Convent, where Marie says she was abused
As soon as she arrived as a six-year-old, Marie says her hair was cut off, her name changed, and she experienced regular beatings from the nuns and students.
She claims a nun instigated the violence, including when Marie was held down so that her legs were “spread-eagled” as she was sexually abused with a coat hanger.
Merseyside Police investigated claims of abuse at the convent, but in 2016, a suspect died before charges could be brought.
Marie has received an apology from the Catholic body that ran the home; she tried to sue them, but her claim was rejected because it was filed too long after the alleged abuse.
Marie, 71, is still fighting for compensation for the abuse she says she suffered as a child
In February, ministers said the law would change for victims of sexual abuse trying to sue institutions for damages, which was a recommendation from the IICSA.
Previously, people had to make a civil claim before they were 21, unless the victim could prove a fair trial could proceed despite the time lapse.
Campaigners argued for the time limit to be removed as, on average, victims wait 26 years to come forward. Changes to the 1980 Limitation Act could lead to more people making claims.
Peter Garsden, President of The Association of Child Abuse Lawyers
Civil cases ‘can take three to five years’
But Peter Garsden, president of the Association of Child Abuse Lawyers, worries that when it comes to historical abuse where the defendant is dead, institutions will still argue that it is impossible to have a fair trial and will fight to have the case thrown out of court.
Mr Garsden said it takes “between three and five years” for a civil case to get to trial.
He warned that claimants “can end up losing if you go through that process. Whereas the Redress Scheme would be quicker, much more straightforward, and much more likely to give justice to the victims”.
Victim awarded £10 compensation
Jimbo, who was a victim of abuse at St Aidan’s children’s home in Cheshire, took his case to the High Court twice and the Court of Appeal three times, but, after 13 years, all he ended up with was £10 for his bus fare to court.
Despite the Lord Justice of Appeal saying he believed that the abuse had occurred, Jimbo lost his claim because of the time limit for child sexual abuse claims to be made.
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Neither Marie nor Jimbo is likely to benefit from the removal of the time limit for personal injury claims, which is why Mr Garsden is calling on the government to implement a National Redress Scheme for victims of sexual abuse, as recommended by the IICSA.
Hundreds of millions paid to victims
The governments in Scotland and Northern Ireland have set up compensation schemes and paid hundreds of millions of pounds to victims.
In 2023, the then Conservative government said a similar scheme would be organised for England and Wales.
But the Home Office admitted in its Tackling Child Sexual Abuse: Progress Update that it “is not currently taking forward any further steps on the IICSA proposal for a separate, national financial redress scheme for all survivors of child sexual abuse”.
“In the current fiscal environment, this recommendation is very difficult to take forward,” it added.
For victims, the scheme was the last chance of compensation for a lifetime blighted by abuse.
“The money is about justice and about all the other people who have had to suffer this abuse,” Marie said.
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