The clauses stage of the Assisted Dying Bill heads into a seventh day in the House of Keys today.
So how much work if left to be done? And what happens next?
Mover of the bill, Ramsey MHK Alex Allinson, gave an update live on Manx Radio Breakfast.
Manx Newscast
Assisted dying debate continues in House of Keys
I'm Sean, one of the news editors at Manx Radio, and the assisted dying bill continues through the clauses stage in the House of Keys this morning. So just where are they up to? And what will happen after this stage? I caught up with the mover of the bill, Alex Allinson. Tim won't have been debating since the dying for the last 20 years. We had lived in to use two years ago, first reading a year ago, second reading was back in October. This is our seventh day going through the clauses. And what we're left with, we've done most of them now. We've got a new clause, which looks at an opt-in scheme for healthcare professionals to join a register and so that they then be providing the services. And we've also got an adjournment of one of the clauses looking at offences and making sure that people who were acting within the new legislation, if it comes in, would be protected for that. So those are the last two parts of the clauses stage. There is still the ability for people to bring in other amendments. We've had several adjournment debates as well. But I hope, given the amount of time and effort that's been put in by politicians, but also by our community, we can actually complete the clauses stage now and actually look at what the final bill will look like. Now, there have been a lot of amendments put forward. Some of them have been accepted, some that haven't. Just how welcome or not has that input been from your colleagues? Without sounding like a politician, which I am, any input is welcome. This bill has got a huge amount of debate. I completely understand that some people are opposed to assist the dying. I recognize that. But actually, there's a silent majority on our islands that are open to the prospect of providing choice for those people facing an imminent death. We've had lots of amendments, as you say. A lot of those have actually improved the bill. And that's one of the things about private members' bills. This is not to do with the unmanned government. This is very much a bill brought about by individuals. And it's always been the case, both here and in the adjacent aisle, that it was felt that things like his sister dying should be more parliamentarian rather than government-led. And that's what I've tried to do. You talked there about that silent majority. When we spoke to the Chief Minister last week about his proposals for a public referendum, one of the things he said was that there is no public mandate for this. If that majority is silent, how do you know that there is that support? Yes. I mean, again, we have been debating sister dying for the last 20 years. I completely understand that I will remember for Michael Mr. Kennan's point of view. What we do know is that significant amounts of people are in favour of this as they're dying through two recent opinion polls that looked at the island population. Last one was at the end of last year. 1,200 people, 66% were in favour of bringing in a sister dying. And that's been fairly consistent, that sort of support, both here and across the British Isles. What I'm aware of, particularly with the medical profession, is I've been contacted by a lot of doctors in favour of this, but they don't want to put their head above the parapet because it can be seen as a contentious issue. I think once we get the legislation completed, once we normalise this and actually explain what it will look like in terms of final legislation, I think a lot of people who are currently either sitting on the fence or a little bit concerned about how it might come into practice will be reassured. Particularly in the last couple of weeks in the House of Keys, there have been some interjections. I've heard the speaker have to step in a couple of times to remind people when they should or shouldn't be speaking. What do you make of the manner in which this debate has taken place? I think some people believe very passionately in support of a sister dying. I think some people believe very passionately against the sister dying. And I think that has bubbled over in some of the debates in the House of Keys. Personally, I think the debates have been handled extremely well. Given the subject matter we're discussing, we're talking about people's lives and the way people die. That's incredibly personal. And one of the strengths of our democracy is that politicians come in to the House of Keys with their own experiences and the experiences of their constituents and try to express those. And I think that's what we've seen. But we've also seen a number of people being brought forward to give evidence, witnesses from both the island and across. And I think that's enriched the debate. Now, as you mentioned at the start, this is coming towards the end of the clauses stage now. It will still have to go through the legislative council. Do you still think this is quite a long way then from coming into force? It is. Whilst this is a relatively short bill, what underpins it, should it get royal assent, is quite a lot of the rules, regulations, guidelines, codes of conduct that will need to be under that. And all of those rests on far more detailed consultation with the medical profession, the nursing profession, the pharmacy, pharmacists on the island. So there is a lot of work to do, also a lot of work to do with regulators in the United Kingdom in terms of the General Medical Council. And we've already had conversations with them. So there is a lot of work to be done. But what we've done over the last six full days of debate on the clauses is actually shape what the bill will look like. And I hope we can conclude that later on today. Thank you for making it to the end of the Mags Radio Newscast. You are obviously someone with exquisite taste. 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