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UK's assisted dying bill: Emotional debate splits Parliament
DW (English)
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11/29/2024
A new law allowing those suffering from terminal illnesses to end their lives with medical assistance will be voted on today by members of the British Parliament. Many disabled people fear the bill will lead to coercion.
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00:00
A painless death for those who want it, that's what these campaigners in Bath and the south
00:06
of England are fighting for.
00:08
They are supporting a proposed law that enables terminally ill people to be assisted to end
00:13
their own lives.
00:14
It's a cause close to Sophie Pandit's heart.
00:19
When my mother wanted an assisted death, even though we knew it was against the law, our
00:25
morality was to support her and enable her to have a death free of suffering.
00:33
Sophie's mother Anne had been diagnosed with a rare brain disorder that would eventually
00:37
have made her completely dependent on others.
00:41
She tried to take her own life, then decided to travel to Switzerland where assisted dying
00:46
is legal.
00:47
Her three children went with her, knowing this would be their final days and hours as
00:52
a family.
00:53
Sophie says their mother died before her time because she needed to be fit enough to make
00:58
the journey.
00:59
I had to do it in a foreign country.
01:02
If assisted dying had been legal in this country, she would have known that she could die at
01:08
home in this country, she could die with her friends and family around her should she wish.
01:14
And it also would have meant that she most likely would have died later on in her illness.
01:22
But some people are against changing the law.
01:25
Disability rights campaigner Phil Friend is afraid that disabled people could be coerced
01:30
into an assisted death.
01:33
Society sees disabled people as people who are dependent, as people who are vulnerable.
01:39
And basically what that means is that they take a view that my life isn't as worth living
01:45
as theirs is.
01:47
So if I get really ill, it would be a kindness, wouldn't it, to let me go?
01:53
The new law proposes safeguards against such coercion.
01:56
Two doctors and a judge would need to approve the death.
02:00
But this does not convince Phil.
02:02
He has lived with disability and the discrimination that he says has come with it since he contracted
02:07
polio at the age of three.
02:10
He feels he needed to constantly fight for his rights and does not completely trust the
02:14
medical establishment.
02:16
So how are two doctors who don't know me supposed to assess whether I'm being coerced or not?
02:22
Whether people are leaning on me to take the medication?
02:26
They won't.
02:27
And doctors aren't trained to look at coercion.
02:30
That's a very skilled job.
02:33
Phil says the proposed law pits his autonomy and desire to live against someone else's
02:38
autonomy and wish to have a pain-free death.
02:41
He would rather have resources diverted into better palliative care.
02:46
Sophie Pandit is convinced that it is cruel to deny people a death without suffering.
02:51
A moral dilemma that UK lawmakers will have to examine very carefully.
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