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Britain’s MPs have narrowly voted to legalise assisted dying, backing a landmark bill and paving the way for one of the most consequential societal shifts in decades.
The legislation to allow anyone with six months or less to live to seek help to end their own life was carried by 314 to 291 votes and will now be pushed through to the final stage of scrutiny in the House of Lords.
The bill would give anyone with a prognosis of less than six months the right to seek assistance in ending their life, with any decision requiring approval from two doctors.
If the law changes, England and Wales will join European countries such as Switzerland, the Netherlands and Belgium, as well as several US states, Canada, Australia and New Zealand in giving terminally ill people the choice to die.
Kim Leadbeater, the Labour MP who brought forward the legislation, led the debate on Friday and pleaded with colleagues to back the third reading of her private members’ bill. It passed with a majority of just 23 votes.
“It is not often we are asked to wrestle with issues of morality, ethics and humanity,” Leadbeater told MPs. She said her bill “is not a choice between living and dying — it is a choice for terminally ill people about how they die”.
The emotionally charged debate and vote on Friday took place against a backdrop of demonstrations outside Westminster by both proponents and opponents of the law change.
The free vote marked the backing of another significant societal change from a number of relatively new backbenches in a still young parliament. On Tuesday, MPs reformed abortion legislation in England and Wales to stop women from being prosecuted for ending their pregnancy.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer was among those who backed the bill in a free vote, which meant MPs were not whipped by their party to vote a particular way. Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch voted against the bill.
Opponents spanned the political spectrum from Labour MP and Mother of the House Diane Abbott to former Conservative minister Sir James Cleverly, who warned it was wrong to “subcontract” further scrutiny of the bill to peers in the House of Lords.
Critics of the bill have warned that safeguards intended to protect vulnerable people being pressured into ending their lives, such as the requirement for a High Court judge to approve each case, have been watered down.
They have also said the legislation, which as a private members’ bill can only be debated on a Friday, had not received sufficient parliamentary scrutiny given the gravity of its implications.
Tom Tugendhat, a Conservative MP and former minister, warned the change in law would represent “a huge shift in the relationship between the individual and the state”.
The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill passed on Friday has undergone a series of amendments since MPs first voted in favour of the legislation last year.
It has been amended to remove the requirement for a High Court judge to sign off on each case. Instead, an oversight panel, including a legal figure such as a KC and a psychiatrist, will consider each case.
Changes also ensure that doctors or care workers will never be compelled to take part in assisted dying if the service is offered in England and Wales.
According to the government’s own risk assessment, published earlier this year, more than 4,500 people a year would seek assistance to end their lives if the law came into force.
Peers will now debate the bill and could propose amendments. If signed into law, as is now looking increasingly likely, the bill is not expected to come into force until 2029.
