00:00Details of the long-anticipated Terminally Ill Adults End of Life Bill have been revealed.
00:07Also known as the Assisted Dying Bill, it has been brought forward by Labour MP Kim
00:12Leadbeater.
00:13The proposed legislation for England and Wales specifies that anyone who wants to end their
00:18own life must be over 18 and have been registered with a GP for at least 12 months.
00:24To be eligible, adults must also be terminally ill with less than 6 months to live, have
00:30a settled wish to end their lives, be mentally competent, and be physically able to take
00:36the prescribed medication themselves.
00:39Patients would require a sign-off by two doctors and a High Court judge to have their request
00:44approved.
00:45There would also be a maximum prison sentence of 14 years for anyone coercing a person into
00:51ending their own life.
00:52Ms Leadbeater says all of this gives the Bill some of the strictest safeguards in the world.
00:58You'll see from the Bill the layers of safeguards and protections, the number of conversations
01:02you have to have with medical professions, the forms which are at the back of the Bill
01:06you will see have to be signed at various stages during the process.
01:10So constantly, constantly checking that this is absolutely what the person wants to do
01:15is entrenched in the Bill, it's at the heart of the Bill.
01:18High-profile supporters of a change in the law include Dame Esther Ransom, who has terminal
01:23cancer, and revealed last year she had joined Dignitas in Switzerland.
01:28Many other campaigners have been making cases for and against the Bill.
01:32This is a really, really historic moment.
01:35The UK has never seen a Bill like this and we're really positive about it.
01:39We're really hopeful that politicians can come together and support this change in the
01:43law to give people who are suffering that relief at the end of their life.
01:46If the worst happens in terms of my death, there is a way to maybe have there be less
01:53suffering.
01:54That would just bring me comfort in my last days and weeks and it would perhaps enable
01:59me to get a bit more out of that time, knowing that I didn't have that spectre of a horrible
02:06death looming over me.
02:08If this Bill is approved by Parliament, that won't be the end of the argument.
02:11Actually, it will keep coming back once the door is open, to open it more widely and allow
02:16more patients to be eligible.
02:18And that puts more and more vulnerable people at risk.
02:22And the evidence from Canada is quite disturbing in that regard, that poor people, people with
02:27mental health problems, people who are homeless or socially isolated or elderly or disabled
02:33end up being pushed into an assisted suicide because community care simply isn't good enough.
02:37And I don't ever want to be in that position in the UK.
02:41MPs will be asked to vote on the Bill on the 29th of November.
02:45As assisted dying is a matter of conscience, parties will not tell their MPs how to vote.
02:50Senior figures in Zakir Starmer's Cabinet, Wes Streeting and Shabana Mahmood have already
02:55stated their opposition to the Bill.
02:57Although the Prime Minister has previously stated his support for assisted dying legislation,
03:02he has deliberately refused to say whether he will vote for this particular Bill to ensure
03:07the government remains neutral on the issue.
03:10I will not be putting pressure on any MP to vote one way or the other.
03:15I personally will study the details of the Bill which has now been published today.
03:20The proposed legislation applies only to England and Wales, and not to the rest of the UK or
03:25the Crown dependencies.
03:27Scotland has drafted its own Bill.
03:29The Isle of Man's proposals are currently progressing through their Parliament.
03:33And earlier this year, Jersey voted to legalise assisted dying for terminally ill adults.
03:39It is a deeply sensitive, personal and divisive issue, and politicians in Westminster have
03:44just three weeks to weigh up a plethora of heartbreaking cases and ethical concerns in
03:50one of the most difficult decisions Parliament will face.
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