Parliament to look again at issue of "assisted dying" for terminally ill patients

doi:10.1136/bmj.327.7425.1186-c

BMJ 2003;327:1186 (22 November), doi:10.1136/bmj.327.7425.1186-c

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Parliament to look again at issue of "assisted dying" for terminally ill patients

London Owen Dyer

Parliament is to re-examine the question of helping terminally ill people to die, 10 years after the possibility of making it legal was rejected by the House of Lords Select Committee on Medical Ethics. The House of Lords Liaison Committee has recommended that a new ad hoc select committee be set up to consider changes in public perception of the issue and the experience of other countries.

The Patient (Assisted Dying) Bill was put before the House of Lords as a private member�s bill by the cross party peer Lord Joffe in February and was the subject of preliminary debate in June. During that debate three members of the original select committee, Baronesses Jay, Warnock, and Flather, said they now supported a change in the law. A record number of peers attended the second reading of the bill, with opinion roughly evenly divided for and against.

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