Anna Dixon, a Labour MP and co-signatory to the amendment, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme said: “We basically want time for more detailed scrutiny of this.”
She added that there had been no public consultation or impact assessment yet.
Calling the amendment “disappointing” Leadbeater said: “The public clearly want this debate to take place and I think we’ve got a responsibility as parliamentarians to make sure that debate does take place.”
“I think the vote will be very close,” she added, because MPs were concerned “about the details” and passing her Bill at second reading would allow that further debate.
Responding to criticism her Bill would not have enough parliamentary scrutiny, she flagged that, if the proposed legislation is agreed in principle by MPs on Friday, there would still be “hours and hours and hours” of scrutiny over the next six months.
She also pointed to previous MP debates, such as the one in 2015, and Westminster committee reports and spoke about how society’s attitudes towards dying have been changing over the last 10 years.
She added: “We’re talking a lot about process… but what I’d actually really like to do in these last few days of debate and discussion is talk about the families, [of those] who are dying horrendous deaths.
“Dealing with people who are taking their own lives, dealing with people who have got no other alternative but to go to another country for an assisted death – if they can afford it.”
The MP said palliative care specialists had told her they “cannot meet everyone’s needs”, which she said meant “you have people taking hours to die, days to die, traumatising loved ones”.
Source:
www.bbc.com
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