Under their latest plan, the States will not be asked to agree in principle to a regime next week.
However, the deputies behind the requete will still look for approval to establish a working party, who will be responsible for developing a suitable legal regime and coming back to the Assembly with its recommendations.
Deputy Gavin St Pier and Lyndon Trott’s amendment, if approved, will also lift the 18-month reporting deadline that was written into the original set of propositions.
If the amended proposals are successful, Deputy St Pier said an independently-chaired working party would be formed by Policy & Resources.
This group would be tasked with consulting with stakeholders from across the community and reporting back to the States with recommendations for the development of a legal regime to permit assisted dying.
The amendment also firms up the commitment to establishing effective disability and capacity legislation before any such regime is sanctioned.
‘It was obvious that some people were concerned that the requete could end up diverting resources from other important projects,’ said Deputy Trott.
‘We always felt it was self-evident that the requete would need to be prioritised in accordance with the normal Policy & Resource Plan process, in exactly the same way as the many other competing policies.
‘But, having listened to these objections, we feel that it would be better to put this beyond doubt in the proposition itself.’
Deputy Peter Roffey added: ‘Whilst those of us campaigning for a change in the law have only ever promoted a model for terminally ill adults with capacity and less than six months to live, we have accepted the criticism that the language of the requete was insufficiently clear in this regard and propose amending the propositions accordingly.’
In preparing the amendment, Deputy Laurie Queripel said the requerants had carefully considered calls for the final legislation to be put to a public referendum.
‘We are arguing our case on the principles involved but are also very confident it has broad public support,’ he said.
‘If any deputy thinks otherwise then they are free to propose that the legislation should only become operative when approved in a public referendum. Whilst in our system, we think the States of Deliberation is the right place to make these kinds of decisions, we would not oppose such a move.’
If the requete is successful, disability and capacity legislation will have to be enacted before an assisted dying regime is put in place.
‘Ensuring we have the right safeguards in this area is close to my heart,’ said Deputy Lester Queripel.
‘We have always accepted that capacity is absolutely essential to our proposals.’
Health & Social Care is asking for States approval to investigate ways to develop palliative care and end of life care services, in what was originally a separate amendment.
It has now been written into the requete.
‘The committee acknowledges that dying well and end-of-life care is a vital part of health and care provision,’ said Deputy Soulsby.
‘The committee considers that the service it currently offers is of a good standard but that it should undertake a review to identify any areas which could be developed, as part of the Partnership of Purpose.’
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