{"id":23894,"date":"2025-03-12T22:02:32","date_gmt":"2025-03-12T23:02:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=23894"},"modified":"2025-03-13T13:23:38","modified_gmt":"2025-03-13T13:23:38","slug":"mps-scrap-judge-sign-off-in-assisted-dying-bill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=23894","title":{"rendered":"MPs scrap judge sign-off in assisted dying bill"},"content":{"rendered":"<div><\/div>\n<div data-component=\"text-block\">\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fezwLZ\">The requirement for a High Court judge to approve assisted dying applications has been dropped by the committee considering the bill.<!-- --><\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fezwLZ\">The clause had been heralded by the bill&#8217;s supporters as a safeguard that made it the strictest such legislation in the world.<!-- --><\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fezwLZ\">But the Ministry of Justice and senior judges raised concerns about the impact on the courts.<!-- --><\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fezwLZ\">Labour MP Kim Leadbeater, who is bringing the bill, suggested replacing the role of High Court judges with a three-person panel featuring a senior legal figure, a psychiatrist and a social worker to review applications.<!-- --><\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fezwLZ\">The committee is expected to insert those details at a later stage.<!-- --><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div data-component=\"text-block\">\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fezwLZ\">After the bill committee voted 15 to seven in favour of dropping the High Court judge&#8217;s role, Leadbeater said the change would make the law &#8220;even more robust&#8221;.<!-- --><\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fezwLZ\">&#8220;And it is much safer than the current ban on assisted dying, which leaves terminally ill people and their families without any such protections at all,&#8221; she said.<!-- --><\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fezwLZ\">&#8220;I have been encouraged that in the course of this debate there have been positive responses to the proposal for a commissioner and a multi-disciplinary panel from colleagues across the committee, regardless of how they voted at [its] second reading.<!-- --><\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fezwLZ\">&#8220;That tells me that whatever our views on the Bill itself, there is a shared commitment to getting protections for terminally ill adults right. That means we are doing our job.&#8221;<!-- --><\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fezwLZ\">However a group of 26 of her fellow Labour MPs warned that scrapping the High Court&#8217;s oversight &#8220;breaks the promises made by proponents of the bill, fundamentally weakens the protections for the vulnerable and shows just how haphazard this whole process has become&#8221;.<!-- --><\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fezwLZ\">In a statement, the group &#8211; made up of MPs who voted against the bill at second reading &#8211; said: &#8220;It does not increase judicial safeguards but instead creates an unaccountable quango and to claim otherwise misrepresents what is being proposed.&#8221;<!-- --><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The requirement for a High Court judge to approve assisted dying applications has been dropped by the committee considering the bill.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23896,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23894","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23894","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23894"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23894\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23897,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23894\/revisions\/23897"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/23896"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23894"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23894"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23894"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}