No nurse who declines to aid in assisted dying procedures will be at risk of “any detriment” to their careers under a new amendment to the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, the MP behind the draft legislation has claimed.
Kim Leadbeater, MP for Spen Valley, announced earlier this week that she would be proposing to extend the “opt-out” provisions in her bill for healthcare workers who work in settings where assisted dying may take place.
“Nobody will be at risk of any detriment to their careers if, for any reason at all, they chose not to take part”
Kim Leadbeater
The bill would legalise assisted dying in England and Wales for terminally ill adults under certain circumstances.
It is due to return to the House of Commons on 16 May to begin its report stage when amendments can be proposed, debated and voted on by MPs.
Ms Leadbeater said, in a statement released this week, that she understood that “not all people working in and around” healthcare would want to participate in the provision of assisted dying.
The bill currently already states that healthcare professionals can conscientiously object to taking part and that employers “must not” subject employees to detriment for exercising this right.
Ms Leadbeater, however, has now said that she will submit an amendment that extends this protection.
She said: “I promised during the lengthy committee hearings into the bill that I would look at how we could extend the ‘opt-out’ provisions and that is what I will be proposing this week.
“As a result, nobody will be at risk of any detriment to their careers if, for any reason at all, they chose not to take part.”
Ms Leadbeater reiterated that “choice is at the heart of the bill” and said the amended bill would have “even more protections” than it did before, and would be “more effective and workable”.
Support for the bill is split, with some high-profile figures political figures backing it and others opposing it.
Secretary of state for health and social care Wes Streeting and Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch both voted against the bill at its second reading last year, while prime minister Keir Starmer and his predecessor Rishi Sunak both backed it.
Ms Leadbeater added: “I am firmly of the view that the overall impact of this long overdue reform will be to make end-of-life care in England and Wales more compassionate and significantly safer.
“We cannot afford to ignore the injustice and unfairness in the current legal framework and I’m grateful to all those in government who have analysed with such care the impact that this legislation, if passed, will have.”
