Assisted dying: Senedd votes against call for new law to allow it

Plaid Cymru South Wales East MS Delyth Jewell was among those opposed to assisted dying.

Close to tears, she said: “My fear with this motion, my terror is not so much with how it will begin but how it will end.”

She said safeguards in countries like Canada, the Netherlands and Belgium had been gradually eroded.

“For many disabled people or people who are not close to their family, people who are worried, anxious and lonely it would leave them to feeling they have no choice but to end their life.”

Most Conservatives who spoke were against the principle.

North Wales MS Sam Rowlands, MS said it was a “slippery slope”, using the example of Canada where he said from 2027 “people with mental illness… will be offered this as a way out of their situation”.

“It’s a very, very real situation in other places all around the world, and I fear that that would be exactly the same in this country.”

Morgan said: “At the moment one person every eight days goes from the UK to Dignitas or somewhere similar in Switzerland.

“Under the present legislation any relative or friends who assists them is liable for prosecution. They are criminalised”.

She said a majority of the public were in support, and said she believed there could be strong legal and medical safeguards.