Assisted Suicide Bill is a step nearer

Lord Falconer’s Bill on Assisted suicide which was introduced into the House of Lords last year (2013) seems set to make its passage through both Houses of Parliament.
The government announced last week (March 2014) that it would allow MPs a free vote on the Bill.
For the first time the Government has made it clear that it would not stand in the way of a change in the law.
It is thought that the proposed legislation will come before Parliament in the next few months.
The Bill would allow doctors to prescribe a lethal dose of drugs to the terminally ill patients. Patients would administer the drugs themselves, although they would be allowed help if they could not lift or swallow unaided.
The treatment would have to be approved and signed for by two doctors.
At the moment it is a criminal offence under the 1961 Suicide Act to help someone end his or her life. Many who have wanted such help have had to travel abroad, especially to Switzerland, where such measures are not illegal.
Four years ago the Director of Public Prosecutions issued guidelines which stated that anyone who assisted a person to die and who clearly did so as an “act of compassion” would be unlikely to be charged. Since then no relatives of deceased persons who have assisted – say by accompanying a loved one to the Dignitas Clinic in Switzerland – have actually been prosecuted under British law.

The House of Commons and the House of Lords are expected to be divided over this issue – not along party lines though.
It is expected that the Bishops in the Upper House will oppose it.
In the Commons opposition will come from both David Cameron and Nick Clegg but high profile figures such as the Liberal Democrat minister responsible for the care of the elderly and disabled, Norman Lamb will support it.
Generally it is suspected that support for the Bill is growing in both Houses.