Jersey is set to allow assisted dying

Jersey is poised to become the first jurisdiction in the British Isles and the Channel Islands to permit assisted dying after its parliament backed a proposition on the issue by 36 votes to 10 on 25 November.

The channel island’s States Assembly was asked to agree in principle that assisted dying should be allowed in Jersey in limited circumstances. This came after a citizens’ jury was asked to examine the arguments for and against legalisation earlier this year. The jury recommended that the law be changed to allow assisted dying for citizens who are mentally competent and either terminally ill or unbearably suffering. As a British Crown dependency, Jersey is able to legislate on the issue independently of Westminster.

Jersey’s Council of Ministers will now draft legislation on assisted dying to be debated by the States Assembly by the end of 2022.

St Helier resident Paul Gazzard, whose husband, Alain du Chemin, died in May from glioblastoma, an aggressive form of brain cancer, welcomed the outcome of the vote. Du Chemin had arranged an assisted death in Switzerland, but his condition deteriorated before he could travel.

Gazzard said, “To have had the option of assisted dying in Jersey alongside end-of-life care would have saved us both so much stress and anxiety in his final months.

“It is heartening to know that other terminally ill people may be given this choice in future, and won’t have to suffer as Alain did, and that his tireless campaigning was not in vain.”

Sarah Wootton, chief executive of Dignity in Dying, which campaigns for law change to allow assisted dying as a choice for terminally ill, mentally competent adults, said, “This historic vote paves the way for the first assisted dying legislation for British citizens, moving at long last away from a cruel and outdated status quo that denies dying people choice and forces them to suffer against their wishes.

“Momentum for change is building right across the UK and Ireland, and Jersey is now leading the charge. An Assisted Dying Bill is also progressing through the House of Lords, a public consultation is under way in Scotland, and a special committee on this issue will launch in Ireland in the New Year.”