Jersey approves assisted dying law

A law to allow terminally ill adults the right to choose to end their own lives has been approved in Jersey.

It marks the final legislative stage for the landmark proposals before they get Royal Assent in the UK - and once approved the first legal assisted deaths could happen as early as next summer.

Those eligible are people with terminal illnesses causing unbearable suffering where they are expected to die within six months, or 12 months for those with neurodegenerative conditions such as Parkinson's and motor neurone disease (MND).

It means Jersey is now the second part of the British Isles where assisted dying has been fully approved - the Isle of Man was the first.

Westminster and Scotland are debating assisted dying, with the draft law in England and Wales making slow progress in the House of Lords.

A UK government spokesperson said the length of processing time "depends on the complexities and sensitivities of a bill, as well as any legal and constitutional issues".

The various proposals across the UK have generated huge controversy, with passionate arguments for and against the changes.

• While Jersey passes its legislation, the bill for England and Wales remains blocked

Both Crown dependencies have set residency requirements for eligibility - 12 months for Jersey and five years for the Isle of Man.

Thirty-two politicians voted in favour of the law with 16 voting against it. The bill will be sent for Royal Assent, which should be a formality.

• How could assisted dying laws change across the British Isles?

Jersey Minister for Health and Social Services, Tom Binet, said: "Jersey would have one of the safest and most transparent assisted dying laws in the world."

Lorna Pirozzolo, from Jersey, who has terminal breast cancer, said the reform to law was "badly needed".

"Like so many terminally ill people I've spoken with, I'm not scared of dying, but I am terrified of suffering as I go. That's why this law is so badly needed.

"Today brings enormous relief, not just for me, but for future generations of islanders who deserve compassion, choice and dignity at the end of life."

Humanists UK chief executive Andrew Copson said it was a "momentous vote of confidence for compassion, dignity, and choice at the end of life".

"For far too long, terminally ill people were denied the right to decide the manner and timing of their own deaths. Today, Jersey has changed that," he said.

"The proposals contain strong safeguards and reflect the clear wishes of the public, who have spoken through citizens' juries and repeated surveys."

The assisted dying campaigner, and former BBC presenter, Dame Esther Rantzen, welcomed the decision.

She said: "Congratulations Jersey, congratulations Isle of Man.

"You've taken this reform through, it's really important, you've recognised how cruel, how messy, how inhumane the current criminal law is."

She said she was sceptical of the motives of peers who have tabled amendments to the legislation, saying "sometimes I wonder if people who are emotionally, or perhaps through their own background, opposed to assisted dying, find all these other explanations where the truth is that they would never find an amendment that would satisfy them.

"They just don't want this law to be put through. They don't want terminally ill people - like me - to have the choice.

"I think there are certain things that have to be laid down in the law. Whether a person is adult, whether a person is competent, and whether the person has six months or less to live.

"But how the code of practice, I think, should not be laid down in black and white, because medicine changes, circumstances change, who knows what the future will hold?"

Dame Esther said her own prognosis had seemingly improved recently.

"Every time I go to my oncologist, I end by saying 'how long have I got?'. And he says 'I don't know'. And actually I had my last scan last week, and the radiologist called my oncologist and said 'did you say you'd stopped treating your patient?', and he said yes because the drugs have stopped working. And he said 'well, she seems to have improved'."

Jersey politician, Deputy Sir Philip Bailhache voted against the law and said he was "disappointed" by the result.

"I'm all in favour of compassion, I'm in favour of people having deaths which are good deaths, but I'm not in favour of the law which has just been passed.

"Life is a precious thing and I don't think really that it's for people to remove life in the way in which the assisted dying law is now going to authorise.

"I think there are very deep ethical issues involved in this subject and I'm not sure what the outcome is going to be.

"I fear that it will change the community of Jersey in a way in which we may not yet be able to foresee."

Labour peer Lord Charlie Falconer, sponsor of the assisted dying bill currently being debated in the House of Lords, said the Jersey legislation was "quite similar".

He said the UK government did not have powers to hold up Jersey's law from getting Royal Assent.

"Apart from the argument about whether it's well-drawn enough, no it should not, because the nature of the constitutional arrangements is that Jersey and the Isle of Man are the people who decide on that sort of issue therefore they should decide it," he said.

"Both Jersey and the Isle of Man reflect I think very strongly the sense that the law desperately needs to change, because the law is so cruel at the moment [in the UK]."

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