MPs have voted to legalise assisted dying in England and Wales by a narrow margin of 23 votes in its final reading in the House of Commons, following five hours of debate.
The draft legislation, which will allow terminally ill adults with six months or less to live to receive medical assistance to end their own lives, was initially backed by MPs in a vote in November. It has since gone through committee and report stages, with MPs debating amendments and voting on proposed changes at its third reading on 20 June.
MPs were given a ‘free vote’ on the bill, meaning they could vote independently rather than follow a party line.
The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill passed with 314 votes for and 291 against. This final vote in the House of Commons, meaning that the bill will now proceed to the House of Lords for further scrutiny.
Pharmacists and the assisted dying bill
Under the current bill, two registered medical practitioners would first need to assess the person seeking assisted dying and provide sign-off.
In the bill, pharmacists are referred to under the title of ‘health professional’, which includes registered nurses, registered medical prescribers, registered pharmacists and registered pharmacy technicians.
The bill states that the ‘coordinating doctor’ who is overseeing the patient’s end-of-life care provision may be accompanied by ‘other such health professionals’ – including pharmacists – that they think are needed.
However, no registered medical practitioner or ‘other health professional’ would be under ‘any duty’ to raise assisted dying with patients or to ‘participate in the provision of assistance’ if they do not wish to do so.
This comes after an exemption clause for pharmacy professionals was added to the assisted dying bill, which was pursued by the Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS).
Officially, the RPS has a neutral stance on assisted dying but championed legislative protections for pharmacy professionals that would enable them to take part, or not take part, in the assisted dying process, depending on their individual religious, moral or ethical beliefs.
Last year, the UK’s chief pharmaceutical officers (CPhOs) and other pharmacy leaders published advice to pharmacy professionals wanting to take part in the assisted dying debate.
