Claire Hanna abstained from last week’s Westminster vote on the assisted dying bill after her prior consideration of the issue “came to a dead heat”.
The SDLP leader’s predecessor Colum Eastwood was the sole Northern Ireland MP to vote in favour of the proposed legislation, while all five DUP representatives voted against, alongside Alliance’s Sorcha Eastwood, Ulster Unionist Robin Swann, TUV leader Jim Allister and North Down independent unionist Alex Easton.
Mr Eastwood said he hoped the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, which will now be further scrutinised by MPs, would “give people in the worst circumstances the freedom to choose what is right for them”.
Ms Hanna told The Irish News she’d had “dozens of conversations” about the issue in recent weeks.
The South Belfast and North Down MP said she was initially minded to vote for the bill, which would allow terminally ill adults expected to die within six months to seek help to end their own life.
However, in the final hours ahead of Friday’s vote, she changed her mind.
“I came to a dead heat in my weighing up of the ethical and practical considerations, and indeed of the quality and quantity of feedback I got from my constituents,” she said.
“I’m not indisposed to the argument and if I’m honest, I thought I would be for it before I really started to explore the issue and speak to a lot of medical professionals.”
Ms Hanna said she had first hand experience of situations where assisted dying could have potentially provided relief for those suffering unbearable pain.
But she was swayed by the argument that it would “change how we approach people in sickness in the context of our catastrophically failing health system”.
She said she saw “merit” in the arguments for assisted dying and she was “not sure that in all cases our health service can provide people with access to a good death”.
“Abstaining doesn’t come naturally to me and I’m still kind of raking over in my mind whether it was the right decision for me to make,” she said.
“People will always assume that politicians are acting cynically but that isn’t the case... politics has been very low down in my consideration.”
The SDLP leader said she was pleased the issue hadn’t become a “culture war “.
“It is entirely clear to me that decent people of good faith can come down on different sides of this argument,” she said.
