LONDON – British lawmakers will soon consider whether to give terminally ill adults a choice to end their own lives with medical assistance, in the first parliamentary move to legalise assisted dying in almost a decade.

Proponents of assisted dying say public opinion on the highly emotive issue has been changing since lawmakers voted against a similar Bill in 2015, and that mentally competent, terminally ill adults with six months or fewer left to live deserve to choose whether to end their lives.

The practice is currently illegal in England and Wales, and carries a maximum prison sentence of 14 years. Those who accompany relatives choosing euthanasia in places like Switzerland, where it has been legal since 1942, could face prosecution in Britain for assisting suicide.

In recent years, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and some US states have legalised assisted dying, or euthanasia, in varying degrees.

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