In 2019 Kevin Hollinrake MP was proposing to introduce a Private Member’s Bill specifically to de-criminalise friends and relatives who helped or accompanied a person travelling to Switzerland for the purposes of an Assisted Voluntary Death. His criteria were based upon those of Dignitas.
This modest and harmless little Bill was stopped in its tracks by Dignity in Dying who felt that it would interfere with their wider campaign for a more comprehensive reform of the assisted dying law in England and Wales. Kevin’s Bill never even saw the light of day.
The forthcoming ballot for Private Members’ Bill has caused some readers of this website (well, four actually) to enquire whether the Hollinrake proposal might be resurrected. The answer is No. The Government has agreed to provide time for a new Bill but will want such a proposal to come from its own side (Hollinrake is a Conservative) and will, rightly, want the whole issue to be debated, not just the Swiss aspects of it.
