Fresh bid to legalise assisted dying as Labour MP brings forward new bill

Fresh bid to legalise assisted dying as Labour MP brings forward new bill EXCLUSIVE: Labour MP Lauren Edwards will take up the fight to allow terminally ill people to end their lives by bringing forward a new private members bill this week A fresh bid to legalise assisted dying will be launched after peers scuppered attempts to change the law. Labour MP Lauren Edwards will take up the fight to allow terminally ill people to end their lives with a new private members bill this week. MPs voted in favour of assisted dying but the proposed law change ran out time in the House of Lords, where supporters accused peers of running down the clock by tabling hundreds of amendments. Ms Edwards will bring back the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill after winning second place in a ballot that allows backbench MPs to introduce new laws. Identical to the bill spearheaded by Kim Leadbeater, it would allow terminally ill people in England and Wales with fewer than six months to live to seek an assisted death, subject to approval by doctors and legal professionals. The Rochester and Strood MP said the status quo was "not tenable" with people left in agony at the end of their lives or forced to watch their loved ones suffer. "Those people quite rightly had a hope that this was going to be introduced," she told the Mirror. "There are a lot of people living in very fearful, very difficult situations - either themselves or their family members - who are just wanting us as politicians to do our job and follow through on the legislation that has been supported already. I think there's an obligation for us to do it." With trust in political institutions under strain, she said the public needed assurance that democratic processes were working properly. Ms Edwards dismissed the idea of bypassing the Lords completely by using the Parliament Act - and said peers needed to finish the scrutiny they had started. Supporters of assisted dying are confident the bill would pass the Commons again - and that MPs haven't changed their minds. Ms Edwards said: "I've seen no indication that people have changed their minds who were supportive of the bill in the past. "What I have heard are people who maybe they opposed the bill during the House of Commons stages last time - when Kim was taking it through - and have been quite rightly angry about the behaviour of a small minority within the Lords, and on a democratic point of principle would now support the bill and vote for it in the House of Commons to go back to the House of Lords to finish the job." Critics of the bill have said its lacks necessary safeguards for vulnerable people, who could be coerced into ending their lives. But Ms Edwards said: "My position was always that I was supportive of the issue in principle, but I would need to have assurance that the safeguards were robust and were appropriate and will protect vulnerable people. "I have had that assurance throughout the process as we went through. I think it's got some of the strongest safeguards that we have in the world, where this legislation has been introduced." Questions have also been raised about the pressure on the NHS from running an assisted dying service. But Ms Edwards said the plan is for a four-year process to give the health service time to prepare, while working alongside to improve palliative care. The assisted dying debate has been fraught, and Ms Edwards is braced for tensions to erupt again. "I understand that there are very strong views on both sides," she said. "It's all about giving people a choice, and so I absolutely know that I'll go through a process that Kim's gone through, probably even worse, but that is a small price to pay for what I hope to be able to do, which is introduce this legislation to give people dignity." She went on: "We are elected as MPs to deal with some of those difficult issues, to have those difficult conversations. We aren't elected to do the easy things." The bill will have its first parliamentary stage on Wednesday. It won't be debated by MPs until its second reading, which is expected in September. [Image text:] CHOICE CAMPAIGN FOR LET US CHOOSE LEEALISE ASSISTED DYINS CAMPAIGN FOR IOICE ESTHER EATH DONT.Fen Deah Fer Dying AMPAIG LISA