Adverts promoting assisted dying services will be banned if the procedure is made law under a new amendment, the MP sponsoring the bill has said.
Labour’s Kim Leadbeater said adverts promoting assisted death as an option for terminally ill people would not be allowed.
She will table an amendment prohibiting such advertising when the bill returns to the Commons on Friday, as well as an amendment that would require the Department of Health and Social Care to undertake an assessment of the state of palliative care.
In a letter to MPs, Leadbeater said there was a “wide consensus” that advertising the procedure should not be permitted.Adverts in other countries including Belgiumand the Netherlands have received widespread backlashes for appearing to promote assisted dying as a preferable option.
“I have worked with colleagues on both sides of the debate and I believe there is wide consensus that if assisted dying does become legal, we wouldn’t want to see it promoted through advertising,” Leadbeater said in her letter.
“There is also widespread consensus and support for improvements in palliative care. It is not a choice between assisted dying or palliative care – I firmly believe we should take a holistic approach to choice and care for terminally ill people.”
Leadbeater said she was still meeting and hearing from MPs about ways the bill could be improved. “One area where supporters and opponents, both in parliament and in the country, agree is that if we are to pass this legislation it should be the best and safest bill possible. I’m confident it can and will be,” she wrote.
She said the bill would have received up to 200 hours of consideration if it passes the House of Lords, “placing it among the most heavily scrutinised bills in recent times”.
Other amendments tabled by Leadbeater include a clause on the regulation of substances used to hasten the death of patients who choose an assisted death. The bill would allow those with less than six months to live, who are terminally ill and of sound mind, to have an assisted death. There is relatively little detail on what that would mean in terms of the procedure contained in the bill.
There would also be extra duties on the health secretary to consult people with learning disabilities, providers of health and care services including palliative and end-of-life care, and people with protected characteristics – such as race, religion and belief.
Leadbeater said she would back an amendment from the Liberal Democrat MP Munira Wilson – an opponent of the bill – for the government to undertake a detailed assessment of the state of palliative and end-of-life care.
“I fully support it. It is not a choice between assisted dying or palliative care – I firmly believe we should take a holistic approach to choice and care for terminally ill people,” Leadbeater said. “This amendment also has the backing of Marie Curie and others in the charitable and end of life sector.”
MPs will have their final vote on the bill next Friday with more than a dozen believed to have switched sides to oppose the bill, though at least three have moved to support it.
On Wednesday the Labour party chair, Ellie Reeves, who abstained at the last vote, confirmed she would vote for the bill. But two others, including the former health minister Andrew Gwynne and the Labour MP Paul Foster, suggested they would now oppose the legislation.