Here's the Guardian:
Senior Conservative and Labour figures said they would back changes to legislation on the issue in England and Wales. by Michael Savage
"Two former health secretaries on Saturday night became the latest senior figures to join the growing demands for a new attempt to legalise assisted dying, as a prominent Tory said he is willing to champion the legislation in parliament.
"With both former Conservative minister Stephen Dorrell and Labour’s Alan Milburn stating they back changing the law in England and Wales, the Observer understands that a Labour government would make time and expert advice available for an assisted dying bill should MPs back it in a free House of Commons vote.
"The news comes as campaigners hope to hold a new vote on the issue early in the next parliament, almost 10 years after the last attempt to alter the law. Kit Malthouse, a former cabinet minister, said he was “absolutely” prepared to front a new private member’s bill on the matter.
...
"Doing nothing is not a passive choice. Leaving the law as it is will consign many thousands of people who may want a different end to a horrible death.”
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"Milburn, who served as health secretary under Tony Blair, said: “When people today expect to have control over so many aspects of their lives, it feels paradoxical that we are denied the same about how we want to die. It’s perhaps the most important decision any of us can make. To deny that choice feels increasingly anachronistic. The time has come for a free vote in parliament on the issue.”
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"However, other senior figures such as Michael Gove have expressed doubts about any change.
"Critics of an assisted dying law have also warned about the difficulties in defining who is eligible, the danger of people being pressured into a decision and subsequent attempts to widen the law.
"Alistair Thompson, a spokesperson for Care Not Killing, a group that opposes assisted dying, pointed to polling that suggested public support for assisted dying may have actually fallen since the mid-1990s.
"He also raised questions about the effects of the drugs used for the process in Oregon and said the law would be widened. “As we saw in the Netherlands and Belgium, limits on who qualifies for an assisted death have been swept away,” he said.
“At a time when we have seen how fragile our healthcare system is, how underfunding puts pressure on services, when up to one in four Britons who would benefit from palliative care aren’t receiving it, and when our nation’s hospices are facing a massive shortfall in their income, I would suggest this should be the focus of attention, rather than discussing again this dangerous and ideological policy.”
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And here's the NYT on the controversy in Canada:
Death by Doctor May Soon Be Available for the Mentally Ill in Canada. The country is divided over a law that would allow patients suffering from mental health illnesses to apply for assisted death. By Vjosa Isai Dec. 27, 2023
"Canada already has one of the most liberal assisted death laws in the world, offering the practice to terminally and chronically ill Canadians.
"But under a law scheduled to take effect in March assisted dying would also become accessible to people whose only medical condition is mental illness, making Canada one of about half a dozen countries to permit the procedure for that category of people.
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"There is still uncertainty and debate over whether assisted death will become available to the mentally ill early next year as scheduled. Amid concerns over how to implement it, Parliament has delayed putting it into place for the past three years and could delay it again."
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