Kettering MP Rosie Wrighting says she'll support assisted dying bill because 'people should have right to choose how to end their life'

Rosie Wrighting (Friday, November 15) confirmed today will vote for the bill to legalise assisted dying.

The Labour MP, who was elected to represent her home constituency in July, said she believes those who are terminally ill and mentally competent should have the right to choose how their life ends.

No other Northamptonshire MPs have yet confirmed how they will vote on the issue. MPs have not been whipped on the issue and are free to vote with their conscience.

The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, a Private Members’ Bill brought forward by Kim Leadbeater MP, will have its Second Reading with a debate and free vote on November 29. If MPs vote in favour it would then have to pass further stages and scrutiny before becoming law.

Rosie said: “This is a complex and emotive issue and I know there are strongly held ethical and moral views on both sides of the debate locally from the correspondence I have received from constituents.

“At the moment, for people who are terminally ill, their choices are very limited. Some travel abroad for help to die, but this is only an option for those with the financial means to do so. Some end their own lives in distressing circumstances. Many spend their final months, weeks and days suffering, physically and mentally, even with the best palliative care.

“I believe in giving people the right to choose how to end their life. Giving people that choice through this legislation would mean anyone who is terminally ill does not have to go through any of these distressing scenarios – if assisted dying was an option they wanted to consider.”

Under the proposed legislation, a person must be over 18, registered with a GP for at least 12 months, have the mental capacity to make a choice about the end of their life, be terminally ill and be expected to die within six months to be eligible.

They must, at every stage of the process, express a ‘clear, settled and informed’ wish, free from coercion or pressure. They must also make two separate signed and witnessed declarations of their wishes – and can change their mind at any time – and two independent doctors must be satisfied that they are eligible.

Their application would then go before a High Court judge, who must hear from at least one of the doctors and may question the person making the application.

Medication must be self-administered and it would remain illegal for a doctor or anybody else to end a person’s life. It would also become illegal, punishable by up to 14 years in prison, to induce a person to make a declaration or self-administer an approved substance by dishonesty, coercion or pressure.

Rosie said: “It is vital that any change in the law includes strong and proper safeguards to ensure it is not applied in cases that do not meet the legislation, which I believe this Bill sets out.

“I am also clear that I believe assisted dying should not become an alternative to high-quality palliative and end-of-life care. People deserve dignity in dying and each person nearing the end of their life should feel reassured and safe in the knowledge they will receive the very best care.”

Successive governments, of both parties, have taken the position that the law on assisted dying is a matter of conscience for individual MPs rather than political parties.

The last House of Commons vote on changing the law was in 2015 when MPs voted against giving the Assisted Dying (No 2) Bill 2015 a second reading by 330 votes to 118.

The full contents of the Bill can be read here.