Parliament has thrown out fresh legislation that would have legalised assisted dying in England and Wales, dealing a heavy setback to campaigners who had pushed for the change.
The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill was defeated by 286 votes to 270 following a lengthy and emotionally charged debate in the House of Commons on Friday.
The bill was brought forward by backbench Labour MP Lauren Edwards and was largely a repeat of legislation MPs had approved the previous year under Kim Leadbeater’s sponsorship. That earlier version stalled in the House of Lords before it could complete its journey into law. Had this new attempt cleared the Commons a second time unchanged, campaigners had floated the idea of invoking the rarely used Parliament Act, a mechanism that would have stripped peers of their power to block or delay it, and which has not been applied to a private member’s bill since the Hunting Act two decades ago.
A House Divided
The five-hour session saw MPs from across the political spectrum wrestle publicly with the issue, often drawing on personal loss and family experience. The government maintained its position of neutrality throughout, and the Prime Minister did not cast a vote.
Opposition to the bill came from several directions. Two former Labour health ministers spoke out against it: Ashley Dalton, who is herself terminally ill, accused proponents of stoking fear, while Dr Zubir Ahmed cautioned that the health service lacked the readiness to safely administer such a policy.
Independent MP Rosie Duffield pressed colleagues to consider that no disability rights organisation had backed the bill, urging them to listen to prominent disabled campaigners and palliative care specialists before casting their vote. Liberal Democrat MP Monica Harding offered a deeply personal account, revealing that two of her siblings, both of whom struggled with mental illness, had died while the legislation was making its way through Parliament. She argued the bill offered insufficient safeguards for people in situations like theirs.
Perhaps the most striking reversal came from Labour’s Janet Daby, who had backed similar proposals in two previous votes but switched sides this time. She told the Commons that after voting in favour previously, she suffered disturbed sleep and an uneasy conscience that ultimately led her to oppose the bill.
The Case for Change
Supporters, including former cabinet ministers Liz Kendall and Sir Hilary Benn, made an impassioned case that the law needed to change to ease suffering among the terminally ill. Kendall argued that people should retain control over decisions affecting their own lives provided no harm came to others, regardless of their financial means. Benn pointed to the anomaly whereby Britons with sufficient resources can already travel overseas to end their lives, while no equivalent option exists at home, asking why the same choice should not be available to terminally ill people within the UK.
Health minister Alison McGovern closed the debate, telling MPs the legislation had received months of careful scrutiny, and became visibly emotional as she referenced the recent death of her own mother while discussing the importance of hospice care.
Reaction
News of the bill’s defeat drew swift reaction. Kendall said she was left disappointed by the result and the distress it would cause families who had campaigned for reform, while predicting the law would eventually change regardless. On the other side, Labour MP Kirsteen Sullivan said she was relieved, arguing that colleagues had rightly listened to warnings raised by disability advocates and other critics of the proposals.
With the bill now defeated, supporters of assisted dying reform face the prospect of a lengthy wait before the issue returns to Parliament.
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