'Northern Ireland is being left behind on assisted dying'

A proposed law to give terminally ill people in England and Wales the right to choose to end their life will be voted on by MPs on 29 November.

Polling suggests there is some public support for a bill and while the majority of MPs from Northern Ireland plan to vote against it at Westminster, assisted dying is not yet on the political agenda at Stormont.

Many religious organisations, disability rights groups and those within the medical profession believe an assisted dying law may be open to exploitation.

However Jill Crawford, who lost her dad Derek to dementia in 2019, is someone who wants to see the conversation around assisted dying begin in Northern Ireland.

Jill thinks politicians should consider mental as well as terminal illness in the debate around assisted death.

Reflecting on her dad's experience, she said: "How do you say to someone that has been diagnosed with dementia, are you ready to die?

"This has to be done beforehand, if it was me, it’s a choice I would make, definitely."

Jill said her dad would not have wanted to end up the way he did.

"He changed slowly from this vibrant, big man full of fun to in his last days lying like a corpse," she said.

"I wouldn’t want my family to have to look after me the way we did with dad, not because we didn’t want to do it but because it took everything from him."

Gavin Walker, chair of campaign group My Death, My Decision, wants to bring an assisted dying bill to Stormont.

The group commissioned a poll in August, which said 67% of people support an assisted dying law to some degree in Northern Ireland.

"Up to this point I think people have just been trying to ignore the fact that it’s happening everywhere else and not happening in Northern Ireland," he said.

Mr Walker said discussions are needed to ensure the bill reflects what the people of Northern Ireland want.

"There are enough mechanisms... for MLAs to really start looking at this properly," he added.

Michaela Hollywood, from Northern Ireland, has spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), a genetic and degenerative condition which weakens muscles and impacts movement. She is a full-time wheelchair-user, is unable to sit-up unaided and her breathing muscles are paralysed.

Ms Hollywood isn’t in favour of the bill that is being brought before Westminster.

She said the bill would be an “absolutely mammoth change” and would be done “without the proper scrutiny and the proper time to have a proper discourse about it”.

“The public really do not grasp how wide ranging this is,” she said.

Ms Hollywood said the “protections for disabled people just are not enough”.

She added: “I have a lot of friends in Canada and seeing what they’re going through, it just makes me worried that we’re doing this the wrong way.

"What we need to be focussing on first is proper care, resourcing the NHS appropriately, and then we can have the discussion about what the right way is to provide choice, because there’s no choice without care, and at the minute we’re trying to do choice without care.”

She said the four UK nations need to come together on the matter and have a user-led commission set up.

Assisted dying is a devolved matter in Northern Ireland meaning it is up to elected politicians if they want to change the law.

The Suicide Act 1961 makes it illegal to encourage or assist a suicide in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Looking to change this for England and Wales is Labour backbench MP Kim Leadbeater.

In the Republic of Ireland, a bill is likely to be introduced in the next Dáil (Irish parliament), after TDs voted to note the health committee’s report, calling for the government to legalise assisted dying in certain circumstances.

A Stage 1 vote on Liberal Democrat MSP Liam McArthur’s bill for Scotland will take place around summer time.

Meanwhile, politicians in Jersey and the Isle of Man have already backed plans to introduce assisted dying and the process to bring in legislation is under way.