UK lawmakers vote to ban assisted dying ads

LONDON (AFP) — British lawmakers on Friday backed a ban on adverts for assisted dying if proposed U.K. legislation allowing terminally ill people to be helped to die becomes law.

Protestors both for and against the bill gathered outside parliament, as lawmakers debated the contentious proposals for legalized euthanasia currently making their way through parliament.

Opening the debate, the legislation’s sponsor, parliamentarian Kim Leadbeater, proposed an amendment that would require the government to introduce regulations banning advertisements promoting assisted dying services.

Lawmakers backed the amendment alongside another preventing health professionals raising the subject of euthanasia with child patients.

Lawmaker Paul Waugh said he feared private companies could “profit from death,” arguing unsuccessfully for even tighter restrictions to prevent adverts than Leadbeater.

“The online harm of an ad for a website about assisted dying shared on TikTok could be a reality” for teenagers without the very tightest of restrictions, he said.

The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill is at the report stage of the lengthy parliamentary process where lawmakers can propose amendments.

The bill would allow assisted suicide in England and Wales for adults with an incurable illness who have a life expectancy of fewer than six months and are able to take the substance that causes their death by themselves.

Following a debate in parliament last November, lawmakers backed the proposed legislation by 330 to 275 votes.

Campaign group Dignity in Dying hailed that result as a “historic step towards greater choice and protection for dying people,” but Christian Concern called it a “very Black Friday for the vulnerable in this country.”

According to media reports some lawmakers who previously supported the bill could withdraw their backing over concerns around safeguards to protect vulnerable people who might feel pressured into assisted dying.

Medical opinion is also divided with the two doctors bodies — the Royal College of Physicians and the Royal College of Psychiatrists — expressing concern.

Others remain supportive including seven RCPsych members who wrote to lawmakers distancing themselves from their college and describing the bill as “workable, safe and compassionate.”

Members will continue to debate amendments on June 20 ahead of a final vote at the bill’s next stage — the third reading. It would then face another vote in the Lords upper house.

Leadbeater’s initiative is a so-called private members’ bill and is not part of the government’s agenda, although Labour Prime Minister Keir Starmer voted in favor at the November reading.

A change in the law would see Britain emulate several other countries in Europe and elsewhere who allow some form of assisted dying.

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By Agence France-Presse