ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
Lawmakers in the U.K. have voted in favor of plans to make assisted deaths legal in parts of Britain. As Willem Marx reports, today's historic vote was an early but crucial hurdle for this new legislation that seeks to address this polarizing issue.
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UNIDENTIFIED GROUP: Hear, hear.
KIM LEADBEATER: It is a privilege to open the debate on the Terminally Ill Adults (End Of Life) Bill, a piece of legislation which would give dying people, under very stringent criteria, choice, autonomy and dignity at the end of their lives.
WILLEM MARX, BYLINE: Kim Leadbeater is the ordinary lawmaker who's proposed this new legislation, and it's something the government of Prime Minister Keir Starmer has not publicly supported. She acknowledged how emotionally divisive the subject has been for lawmakers in recent weeks.
LEADBEATER: I know for many people this is a very difficult decision. But our job is also to address the issues that matter to people. And after nearly a decade since this subject was debated on the floor of the House, many would say this debate is long overdue.
MARX: In a parliament known for its often rowdy debate, the speeches that followed over the next 4 1/2 hours were somber and serious, until eventually the speaker called for a vote.
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UNIDENTIFIED GROUP: No.
LINDSAY HOYLE: Division, clear the lobbies.
MARX: A majority of 330 members voted in favor of the legislation, with many saying they wanted to hear more debate on the matter in the months ahead, something Kim Leadbeater has promised will happen.
AKIKO HART: She has said that she will invite lawmakers from other parties, some of who have different views on the bill, to join her, and she has invited written and oral evidence for them to consider.
MARX: Akiko Hart is Director of Liberty, the British human rights and civil liberties advocacy organization.
HART: What we will see as well, I think, on the outside is the campaigning both for and against this bill, that public campaigning, gathering pace in preparation for the third reading in Parliament, which we would expect in the summer.
MARX: Doctors and judges will be required to approve a person's request for help dying. But Hart says she expects further discussions around the concept of coercion, the idea that people might feel pressure from their families or the country's currently poor provision of palliative care to opt for an early death. But there are some who still oppose the plan altogether.
MATTHEW DORE: I'm disappointed, profoundly disappointed.
MARX: Matthew Dore is the honorary secretary of the Association for Palliative Medicine in Great Britain and Ireland, and says parliamentarians should seriously reconsider their support for what some today termed a national suicide service.
DORE: I want to highlight the monumental task of trying to make this even remotely safe. If there is a scandal in 10 years' time of someone being coerced or pressurized or it being the cheaper option, that is on those MPs who have clearly been told the risks.
MARX: Assisted dying is already legal elsewhere, including 10 U.S. states, plus the District of Columbia. Polls in Britain currently indicate widespread support for a change to the laws around assisted dying, but that may change in the months ahead as this contentious public conversation continues. For NPR News, I'm Willem Marx.
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