British lawmakers take first step to change end-of-life rules
British Parliament moves forward with new end-of-life care bill getting more yes-votes than expected. The law-making process will take about half-a-year with multiple voting stages ahead
On friday Nov 29th‚ the British Parliament made a big step forward - voting yes on new end-of-life rules with 330 MPs supporting and 275 being against it. The bill (which needs more voting rounds to become a real law) lets doctors help terminally-ill people in their last months
The proposed rules have strict limits: only mentally-fit adults in England and Wales who got doctors confirmation about having less than 6 months left can ask for medical help to end life. Kim Leadbeater who brought this bill to parliament says: “we need to take time and make it right“
Some law-makers dont agree with current text; they think its moving too fast. Danny Kruger - one of the main critics points out that “its impossible to write a bill thats safe“. The whole process might take half-a-year (including House of Lords review) and many things can still change
The vote made big waves across UK: lots of people waited outside parliament to hear results. When numbers came up‚ supporters started hugging each-other; some even shouted “we did it“. While England and Wales might change rules soon - Scotland looks at its own law changes; Northern Ireland isnt planning anything similar yet
Its very emotional‚ but its emotional for lots of people; Im just glad that weʼve managed to represent those voices here today
