Britain inches closer to legalising mercy killing

Terminally ill patients in the UK hospitals would, in weeks to come, be granted access to medically assisted dying services.

This adds Britain to a slew of 10 others who had since allowed euthanasia.

The Friday move comes against the backdrop of voting in parliament with majority legislators giving a bill by Labour MP Kim Leadbeater a thumbs up.

In countries where euthanasia is legal, individuals with terminal illnesses--and experiencing intense pain with no hope of recovery--may choose to die quickly and painlessly via euthanasia.

This 'saves' them from enduring  prolonged, painful, and potentially expensive illness.

10 countries including Canada, Australia, Netherlands  Portugal, Belgium, Colombia, Luxembourg, New Zealand, and Spain are currently practicing mercy killing.

Euthanasia is highly controversial with most critics objecting to it citing spiritual grounds, maintaining that God gives all life, and He alone has the right to take it.

The licensing of euthanasia in the UK would allow adults who have less than six(6) months (medically) to be given help to die subject to approval from two(2) doctors, and a judge.

The legislators have remained polarized throughout over the bill till the voting on Friday.

After a five-hour tense house session, they voted by 330 to 275 in support of the bill.

With the voting, the bill has sailed the first hurdle to becoming law.

The vote was considered a matter of conscience, meaning MPs did not have to choose to vote along party lines, but instead had a free vote.

Health Secretary Wes Streeting has stood opposed to it through arguing that the UK's end-of-life care system wasn't up to the task of supporting the legislation.

Streeting has argued that the bill would mean cuts on other services in the country's already struggling National Health Service (NHS), and said he is opposed to forcing clinicians who would otherwise have ethical objections to enable assisted dying.