St Pier want plans assisted dying requete early next year

Gavin St Pier labelled yesterday’s House of Commons vote, which saw MPs vote in favour of backbench Labour MP Kim Leadbeater’s Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, as ‘historic and much welcomed’.

‘It will bring safer and more compassionate choice at the end of life to the terminally ill,’ he said.

The vote saw 330 MPs vote in favour of allowing assisted dying, with 275 against.

It means that England and Wales have moved a step closer to approving a law giving terminally ill people the right to choose to end their life.

Months of parliamentary scrutiny now lie ahead, and if it becomes law, the first cases in England and Wales are not expected for at least two years.

Deputy St Pier, who unsuccessfully led a campaign to change local laws in 2018 and more recently suggested that Guernsey and Jersey draft any required legal changes together, reiterated his frustration that legislators in Jersey, the Isle of Man, and now England and Wales, had managed to move ahead of Guernsey.

‘I have said many times in recent years that this is an inevitable social change, not least because the overwhelming majority of the public want it,’ he said.

‘The States passed up the opportunity to lead on this matter in 2018.’

Local research published in March indicated that nearly nine out of 10 islanders wanted to see a change in the law to allow assisted dying.

Deputy St Pier said it had always been his intention to give the States a vote on the issue during the current term.

‘I will now seek to work with colleagues to bring a requete to the States in the first quarter of 2025,’ he said.