Peers back proposal that a judge would need to approve cases of assisted dying

The House of Lords has backed a proposal requiring the approval of a High Court judge before a doctor can help a terminally ill patient to die, in the event that the Assisted Dying Bill becomes law in the United Kingdom. Peers voted at the committee stage to accept amendments tabled by the independent peer David Pannick that would require a judge to be satisfied that a person asking for assisted suicide had made a “voluntary, clear, settled, and informed” decision to die. The bill, based on the assisted suicide laws in the US state of Oregon and put forward as a private member’s bill by the …