Assisted dying legislation must wait until after UK election

doi:10.1136/bmj.330.7495.807

BMJ 2005;330:807 (9 April), doi:10.1136/bmj.330.7495.807

News

Assisted dying legislation must wait until after UK election

Kathryn Godfrey

London

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Legislation to allow assisted suicide and voluntary euthanasiain the United Kingdom has moved one step closer to being implemented,with the publication of a House of Lords select committee reportlast week. The report on Joel Joffe's Assisted Dying for theTerminally Ill Bill called for the issue to be debated earlyin the next session of parliament. This bill will not go anyfurther as parliament is being dissolved for the UK generalelection, to be held on 5 May.

Although the committee was divided on whether the law shouldbe changed, it recommended that a future bill on the issue shouldbe considered by a committee of the whole house. The new billis likely to apply only in England and Wales, as Lord Jofferecommended. This is a step forward from the last report, in1994, when the lords concluded that the law should not be . . . [Full text of this article]

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