The Assisted Dying Bill Explained

Newscast

BBC

Politics, News

4.4 • 6.4K Ratings

🗓️ 12 November 2024

⏱️ 31 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Today, we look at the assisted dying legislation that’s been published ahead of a vote in Parliament. Under the bill, adults with less than six months to live would be given the right to end their own life. They would need to meet several requirements - including approval from two independent doctors and a High Court judge. Adam is joined by the BBC’s deputy political editor Vicki Young and medical editor Fergus Walsh to discuss the safeguards set out in the bill, how leading politicians are saying they’ll vote and the concerns those who oppose the bill have raised. You can join our Newscast online community here: https://tinyurl.com/newscastcommunityhere

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Newscast brings you daily analysis of the latest political news stories from the BBC. It was presented by Adam Fleming. It was made by Jack Maclaren with Gemma Roper. The technical producer was Mike Regaard. The assistant editor is Chris Gray. The editor is Sam Bonham.

Transcript

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0:00.0	BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, podcasts.
0:04.4	Hello from Westminster, where it's Tuesday morning, and MPs from all parties and observers and
0:11.2	political journalists are digesting the legislation that was published on Monday night,
0:16.9	which would make assisted dying legal in England and Wales.
0:21.8	And this is now going to be considered in Parliament in a couple of weeks' time.
0:24.8	And I'm here with Vicki Young, Deputy Political Editor.
0:27.0	Hello, Vicki.
0:27.5	Hi, Adam.
0:28.1	I was just thinking, actually, we've both been political journalists for quite a long time now.
0:31.9	And this kind of, this comes up every couple of years.
0:34.8	Maybe actually every five years as an attempt to try and get this
0:38.0	into the law. But it does feel a bit different this time, doesn't it? I can't quite put my
0:43.0	finger on why that is, though. I think it is because there's been a big churn of MPs in
0:48.8	terms of new MPs coming in. So the last actual vote in the Commons was nine years ago. So the votes in
0:54.8	the Commons don't happen so often. There's been lots of attempts in the House of Lords. They just
0:58.4	don't get very far. So I do think that is why there is much more emphasis on it. There's a feeling
1:03.9	which you can't possibly really nail down that these newer, possibly younger MPs, Labour MPs, are going to be more in favour.
1:12.5	Now, I'm not sure that that is necessary the case.
1:14.5	But I think that's why this time people think there's more of a chance that this might get through.
1:19.3	And also, I'd just think back to the election campaign in that day where Kirstarmer was asked about it,
1:24.0	where someone said, as Prime Minister, would you make time in Parliament for this to
1:29.2	happen? And he said, yes, which doesn't sound like somebody like giving their full-throated
	...

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