Assisted Dying Bill drops High Court sign-off

ODN

The Assisted Dying Bill currently being scrutinised by MPs will no longer require patients to receive the direct sign-off of a high court judge before they die. Shadow minister Matt Vickers - who opposed the bill in the House of Commons vote - said the decision is "a huge concern".  Report by Kennedyl. Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/itn and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/itn

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00:00So my inbox at the minute brimming with correspondence about assisted dying,

00:04people who've died in terrible circumstances or lost family members in terrible circumstances,

00:08people equally concerned, often disabled people, concerned about what that means for their rights

00:13and whether there is any risk to their freedom and their ability to say no and determine their

00:19own futures. And nobody wants to see anybody die a painful, horrible, prolonged death,

00:24but it's all about what we can do as a state to provide those safeguards, to provide those checks.

00:29This was supposed to be a well-considered, thought-out bill. One of the planks on which

00:34it was built was this idea of a hard-court judge. Now we're seeing that watered down,

00:39it's obviously a huge concern.

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