Assisted dying move defeated in Senedd vote

Senedd members, including First Minister Eluned Morgan and Health Secretary Jeremy Miles, have voted against a motion calling for a new law to allow assisted dying in Wales and England.

Miles had earlier warned of "huge ramifications" for Wales if the law changed.

In total, 19 Senedd members voted in favour of the motion, with 26 against and nine abstentions - however, the Senedd does not have the power to change the law on assisted dying in Wales, so the vote was symbolic.

It came after a debate in which one politician said his grandfather was threatened with a manslaughter charge for wanting to help his own wife die.

Conservative Member of the Senedd (MS) James Evans said his grandad wanted her to "have the option to end her life naturally" after a stroke left her with "no life or quality of life".

But Evans said doctors told his grandfather he could be prosecuted and he regretted the decision to extend his wife's life "for the rest of his days".

The defeated Senedd motion proposed that adults suffering "intolerably" from an incurable physical condition should have the option of an assisted death, with "robust" safeguards in place.

The power to change the law lies with MPs in Westminster, who will next month debate and vote on plans for an assisted dying law tabled by Labour backbench MP Kim Leadbeater.

Her proposals are narrower than those debated by the Senedd and involve giving terminally ill adults nearing the end of their lives the right to choose.

Opponents warned that proposals in the House of Commons for assisted dying could lead to further liberalisation of the law and a "slippery slope".

Evans said he entered politics because of a promise he made to his grandmother that he would "never let anybody go through what she went through at the end of her life".

He told the Senedd that his grandmother had dementia and his grandparents had decided that "if anything bad happened, my grandfather would make the decision that my nan would not suffer".

Evans said his grandmother then suffered a stroke which left her incapacitated.

"She couldn't talk, couldn't open her eyes, but she was still alive. She had no life or quality of life," Evans said.

He explained that his grandfather was told by doctors they could keep his grandmother alive by introducing a feed peg, but that his grandfather had argued she should "have the option to end her life naturally".

However, according to Evans, his grandfather was then told by doctors that he could be prosecuted "for manslaughter", and so he relented.

"My grandfather regretted that decision that he had to make to extend my nan's life for the rest of his days.

"I made a promise to both of them, I would never let anybody suffer like that again, and that's why I support this today."

The Senedd does not have the powers over to legalise assisted dying, but Health Secretary Jeremy Miles indicated it is likely future legislation will require another vote to give the parliament's consent.

The Welsh NHS, which is almost totally devolved and overseen by Cardiff politicians, would be responsible for implementing the law.

Cardiff North Labour MS Julie Morgan led a Senedd debate on a motion which was broader, arguing that adults of "sound mind who are intolerably suffering from an incurable, physical condition" should have the option of an assisted death.

Rhys ab Owen, an independent MS, talked about his father, Owen John Thomas, who he said in his final years "wasn't able to speak, he couldn't go to the toilet".

"They were cruel to us as a family, and there are no words to describe how cruel the experience was for him.

"Who are we? Who am I to force any person to live through that experience if they don't wish to do so.

"I wouldn't want any individual or family to have to suffer through that experience."

"Yet again, on the other hand, even in those final weeks, his smile was still there, and that meant the world to us."

Raising some questions about how the law would work, he asked: "I've lost a number of people in that very special hospice, Home Towers. Will that hospice, which is such a beautiful location, be asked to become a setting to assisted dying - palliative care in one room, assisted dying in another?"

He said he supported the legislation, but said he had "major concerns".

Plaid Cymru South Wales East MS Delyth Jewell was among those opposed to assisted dying.

Close to tears, she said: “My fear with this motion, my terror is not so much with how it will begin but how it will end."

She said safeguards in countries like Canada, the Netherlands and Belgium had been gradually eroded.

"For many disabled people or people who are not close to their family, people who are worried, anxious and lonely it would leave them to feeling they have no choice but to end their life."

Most Conservatives who spoke were against the principle.

North Wales MS Sam Rowlands, MS said it was a "slippery slope", using the example of Canada where he said from 2027 "people with mental illness... will be offered this as a way out of their situation".

"It's a very, very real situation in other places all around the world, and I fear that that would be exactly the same in this country."

Morgan said: “At the moment one person every eight days goes from the UK to Dignitas or somewhere similar in Switzerland.

“Under the present legislation any relative or friends who assists them is liable for prosecution. They are criminalised”.

She said a majority of the public were in support, and said she believed there could be strong legal and medical safeguards.

Miles said that if either the Commons bill or a bill from Lord Falconer in the Lords became law "they will, of course, have huge ramifications for Wales".

Indicating that another vote would be likely in the Senedd, he said: "Naturally, the area of health is largely devolved, and therefore it is likely that there would be devolution implications."

"If the law on assisted dying is to change, there will be long reaching implications for the health service and end of life care services in Wales.

"It is vital that we continue our work in Wales to improve the quality of and access to palliative and end of life care."