Lawmakers in the UK House of Commons have voted down a controversial bill that would have allowed terminally ill adults to apply for assisted death. The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill was defeated at its Second Reading by a vote of 286 to 270, with a majority of 16 votes against it.
This marks the second time in recent parliamentary sessions that such legislation has failed to advance. The bill, reintroduced by Labour MP Lauren Edwards, had previously passed two votes in the House of Commons but ultimately stalled in the House of Lords. Edwards urged colleagues to send the bill back to the Lords to allow them to complete their scrutiny.
The debate, which lasted four and a half hours, saw many Members of Parliament speak with deep emotion about personal experiences with terminal illness. Supporters argued for providing choice and dignity in end-of-life care, while opponents raised concerns about the bill being "flawed" and "unsafe."
Critics, including Tory leader Kemi Badenoch, warned against rushing the legislation, describing it as "badly drafted." Badenoch stated that the National Health Service (NHS) is not ready for such a measure and that it should be a government initiative, not a private members' bill.
"It's rushed, it's badly drafted – and I say this as someone who is not, in principle, opposed to assisted suicide," Badenoch told the Commons. "I don't think our NHS is ready and I think this should be something that the Government does thoughtfully, not a private members' Bill, let alone one which has failed before and which they're trying to ram through with government numbers."
MP Ashley Dalton, who has incurable stage four metastatic breast cancer, spoke about the uncertainty of prognosis. "Palliative care professionals and oncologists tell me that, whilst they can more or less give me an indication of when I'll die when I'm a few days or weeks off, anything beyond that is the flip of a coin," Dalton said. "The six-month prognosis in this Bill is something no one can ever be really sure of."
Dr. Zubir Ahmed, a cancer surgeon and former health minister, echoed these concerns, stating that the social and palliative care system is "simply is not ready" and that medical prognoses can often be uncertain. "When I am asked to prognosticate as to whether someone has six months to live or not, I am as often wrong as I am right," he told the chamber.
Fellow Labour MP Claire Hazelgrove shared a personal account of her mother's death from a rare blood cancer, arguing that the current law forced her to die alone. "The harmful status quo meant that Mum died alone, with photos of us around her," Hazelgrove said, advocating for a system that allows individuals to die "on her terms."
Prime Minister Andy Burnham abstained from voting to avoid influencing the debate but has previously emphasized the need to improve palliative and social care before further discussion on assisted dying. Recent polling suggests a public consensus for prioritizing these care systems, with 82 percent agreeing that Parliament should first ensure no one feels compelled towards assisted death due to a lack of care and support.
The bill had proposed allowing terminally ill adults with fewer than six months to live to apply for an assisted death. If passed, and with a four-year implementation period, assisted dying would not have been available until 2031 at the earliest in England and Wales. The previous iteration of the bill passed its Third Reading in the Commons last year by a majority of 23 votes before falling in the Lords. The Parliament Acts allow a bill to receive royal assent without peers' approval if passed by MPs in two concurrent parliamentary sessions without amendments.