THE first stage in legalising assisted dying in Jersey has been delayed – but the Health Minister said the new law is still “on track” to be debated before the end of the year.
Politicians last year voted in favour of setting up an assisted dying service in Jersey for islanders with terminal illnesses and neurodegenerative diseases.
The proposed legislation was due to be drafted by July, but it this week emerged that the draft law will not be lodged until September.
Following questions from the Health Scrutiny Panel, Deputy Tom Binet said: “We’re still on track, as I understand it, to meet the November debate.”
Health policy director Ruth Johnson explained: “We are estimating that we will lodge the law in early September, so we will still have an extended lodging period – but that extended lodging period will be nine weeks, rather than 12 weeks.”
When asked if she was confident in the new dates, Ms Johnson said: “I absolutely will never put my head on the line when it comes to law drafting.
“I don’t think that you would ever have a policy officer who does because this really is not something over which we have full control.”
It’s imperative that scrutiny has enough time to effectively scrutinise this legislation
Assisted Dying Review Panel vice-chair Deputy Catherine Curtis
During the meeting, Health Scrutiny Panel chair Deputy Louise Doublet raised concerns that the reduced lodging period would leave politicians without enough time to scrutinise the proposed assisted dying law.
She said: “The scrutiny process cannot necessarily be truncated if there are delays.”
The Health Minister acknowledged this pressure, but said that he didn’t want to push staff to “breaking point and lose them”.
“People are really working to the fullest extent, and this is probably receiving more priority than anything else,” he added.
Speaking to the JEP after the meeting, Assisted Dying Review Panel vice-chair Deputy Catherine Curtis said she would be keeping a “close eye” on the timing of the lodging of the assisted dying draft law.
“It’s imperative that scrutiny has enough time to effectively scrutinise this legislation,” she explained.
“It’s a complex subject and to ensure that safeguarding is central to the legislation requires a lot of checking and consultation. So it’s understandable that there may be some delays.
“However, we know how important this subject is to many people so we don’t want to see delays to the debate, which is due in November.”
