Conscientious objection: will doctors be able to opt out of assisted dying?

On 15 October the backbench Labour MP Kim Leadbeater introduced the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill,1 which would give terminally ill people in England and Wales the right to end their lives.

The text of the bill is yet to be published: this will come before its second reading at the end of November. However, it’s expected to be similar to a bill tabled in the House of Lords by the former Labour lord chancellor Charlie Falconer,2 and it would allow terminally ill adults believed to have no more than six months to live to receive medical help to die.

Falconer’s bill also includes a clause on conscientious objection, which states that “a person is not under any duty (whether by contract or arising from any statutory or other legal requirement) to participate in anything authorised by this Act to which that person has a conscientious objection.”

Previous bills to legalise assisted dying in the British Isles—including the last attempt in England and Wales in 2015, as well as legislation currently being considered in Scotland, the Isle of Man, and Jersey—also include clauses on conscientious objection. Internationally, countries with assisted dying legislation also include such a caveat, says the BMA.3

Conscientious objection allows a professional to opt out of a practice that they regard as morally wrong, says Mary Neal, a reader in law at the University of Strathclyde who has previously advised the Scottish parliament on assisted dying. The best known example in medicine relates to termination of pregnancy, as a doctor’s right not to participate is enshrined in the 1967 Abortion Act.