The All-Party Parliamentary Group for Choice at the End of Life is a cross-party group of members of the British Parliament and Peers that supports better end-of-life options, including assisted dying. They believe that, subject to legal safeguards, terminally-ill adult patients should have the option of an assisted death in their final stages of life.
In 2012, this
APPG
An all-party parliamentary group (APPG) is a grouping in the Parliament of the United Kingdom that is composed of members of parliament from all political parties, but have no official status within Parliament.
Description and functions
All-party ...
launched a draft a bill for assisted dying which was presented to the
House of Lords
The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by appointment, heredity or official function. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminste ...
by
Lord Falconer
Charles Leslie Falconer, Baron Falconer of Thoroton, (born 19 November 1951) is a British Labour peer and barrister who served as Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice under Prime Minister Tony Blair from 2003 to 2007.
Born in ...
in 2013. The proposed bill was debated in 2014 but ran out of time in the run up to the
2015 general election. A version of the bill tabled by
Rob Marris
Robert Howard Marris (born 8 April 1955) is a British Labour Party politician, who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Wolverhampton South West. He first held the seat from 2001 until his defeat in 2010. He regained at the seat at th ...
was eventually voted on and defeated in the House of Commons in September 2015.
The APPG is currently chaired by
Labour
Labour or labor may refer to:
* Childbirth, the delivery of a baby
* Labour (human activity), or work
** Manual labour, physical work
** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer
** Organized labour and the labour ...
MP
Karin Smyth.
It was formerly chaired by Independent MP
Nick Boles
Nicholas Edward Coleridge Boles (born 2 November 1965) is a British politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Grantham and Stamford from 2010 to 2019. He was a member of the Conservative Party until 2019.
Before entering Parliament ...
, who stood down at the
2019 General Election. Boles had faced a potentially life-threatening illness before supporting the campaign. Prior to this, the APPG was chaired by
Kit Malthouse
Christopher Laurie "Kit" Malthouse (born 27 October 1966) is a British politician and businessman who served as Secretary of State for Education from 6 September to 25 October 2022. A member of the Conservative Party, he previously served as C ...
MP who called the campaign "the great human rights campaign of our political generation".
The secretariat is provided by the non-profit assisted dying campaign group
Dignity in Dying
Dignity in Dying (originally The Voluntary Euthanasia Legalisation Society) is a United Kingdom nationwide campaigning organisation. It is funded by voluntary contributions from members of the public, and as of December 2010, it claimed to hav ...
.
APPG Chair and Vice Chairs
See also
*
Assisted suicide in the United Kingdom
*
Euthanasia in the United Kingdom
Active euthanasia is illegal in the United Kingdom.
Passive euthanasia
Although it is an offence to actively end a patient's life, many doctors still assist their patients with their wishes by withholding treatment and reducing pain, "accordi ...
*
Right to die
The right to die is a concept based on the opinion that human beings are entitled to end their life or undergo voluntary euthanasia. Possession of this right is often understood that a person with a terminal illness, incurable pain, or without ...
References
External links
Official website
All-Party Parliamentary Groups
Assisted suicide
Euthanasia organizations
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