London – Hours after the emotional debate, British lawmakers at the House of Commons voted on Friday to pass a draft law that allows adults with medical diseases in England and Wales to choose to end their lives. The draft law issued 23 votes, with hundreds protesting the issue of division outside parliament, from both sides of the discussion.
The draft adults with early diseases (the end of life) will be subject to months of audit by the House of Lords, the parliament of the British Upper Chamber. The Lords, who have not been elected, can discuss discussion, delay and amend the bill, but they have little authority to prevent legislation approved by members of the elected parliament in the House of Commons.
The central principle of the draft law is that adults over the age of 18 and who consider them less than six months to live-after a series of checks protection-assistance to end their lives are provided, in the form of fatal drugs that they can manage them.
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In November, British lawmakers gave Olympic Approval of the new lawPass it with 330 votes to 275 – a broader margin indicates that some members of Parliament changed their opinion before Friday’s vote.
Since the first vote, the original draft law proposed by the legislator Kim Ledbter has been subjected to several changes, including dropping a item that would have to require the signing of any final decision granting death with medical assistance. The current bill requires any request approved by two doctors, a committee that includes a social worker, a large legal personality, and a psychiatrist.
In a debate before voting on Friday, Leadbeater told Parliament about many stories that I heard from people who witnessed friends and family suffering from painful death.
“The lack of support of the draft law today is not a neutral act. It is a vote for the current situation,” she said. “Despair fills me for the belief that the representatives of (parliament members) can be here within another 10 years to hear the same stories.”
Leadbeater and other supporters of the draft law argue that people who suffer from peripheral diagnoses must have the right to choose whether it will continue to live. They cited stories about people who take their lives secretly because no one can help them legally.
They also argue that it is not fair for people with enough money to seek care to eventually seek care by traveling to Switzerland. More than 500 Britons ended their lives in Switzerland, where foreigners can choose death with help.
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The opponents argue that the elderly or the disabled can be manipulated – publicly or liquid – to end their lives, to save money or to reduce the burden of their loved ones. Others say they say better for life and health care will be a better alternative.
Outside Parliament on Friday, the demonstrators faced contradictory slogans. Some wore clothes bearing the phrase: “A campaign for dignity in death”, while opponents held banners calling the national health service in the United Kingdom, “National Suicide Service.”
Voting paves the way for what could be one of the biggest changes in social policy in the United Kingdom since the partial legalization of abortion in 1967.
If the draft law passes in the House of Lords, it is expected that it will take another four years to implement another.
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