MHKs given time to consider assisted dying report

Alex Allinson brought forward the private member's bill in 2023

Members of the House of Keys will have "lots of time" to consider a "significant report" into proposed assisted dying laws, the politician behind the bill has said.

Alex Allinson's private member's bill passed its second reading in October, before a committee was appointed to consider its 14 clauses.

That panel's report, which made several conclusions about changes that could strengthen the Assisted Dying Bill, will be discussed by MHKs on 23 April.

Dr Allinson said he intended to give members a "chance to look at the report" and "the evidence behind it" before progressing to the clauses stage in May.

He said: "It’s quite a significant report with lots of contributions from a whole range of people."

'Digest the contents'

Dr Allinson and fellow MHKs David Ashford, Rob Callister, Michelle Haywood and Lawrie Hooper were on the committee.

Its report suggested a number of potential changes to the bill, including an increase in the Manx residency criteria to five years from one.

The committee was due to report back by February but was delayed while "some extra correspondence" from defence unions insuring doctors was collected, Dr Allinson said.

Members now had the time to "digest the contents" of the report before it would be discussed.

Dr Allinson said following a debate about that report, the clauses would then be taken "step by step, probably over several sittings," giving people "lots of time to debate some of the nuances of the bill".

He said, were the primary legislation to be passed through both branches of the Manx parliament and receive Royal Assent, secondary legislation would then need to be created.

That would be "quite a long process", which would "take at least 18 months if not two years to actually come into practice".

While proposals have been welcomed by some campaigners, they have been met with concerns from a number of medics.

"All I can do is reassure, inform and argue with the members of the House of Keys that this is the right thing to do for our people," Dr Allinson said.