Prominent actors and public figures, led by Dame Helen Mirren and Sir Ian McKellen, urged members of the House of Lords to support a bill that would allow some terminally ill adults to choose assisted dying.
The letter, published with the support of campaign group Dignity in Dying and timed ahead of a decisive Lords debate on Friday, was signed by figures including Dame Esther Rantzen, Joanna Lumley, Prue Leith, Harriet Walter, Miriam Margolyes, John Nettles, Jasper Conran, Jonathan Dimbleby and Zoe Wanamaker. It appeals to peers to “give them the choice and control over their own end of life that every person deserves.”
The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, a Private Members’ Bill sponsored in the Commons by Labour MP Kim Leadbeater, passed the House of Commons in June by a majority of 23 MPs. If enacted, it would permit adults in England and Wales who are assessed as having less than six months to live to request assistance to end their life. The bill would require confirmation from two doctors that the decision is voluntary and would mandate an application to the High Court for approval.
Supporters argue the change would give people greater control and dignity at the end of life and point to polling cited in the letter showing about three-quarters of the British public back an assisted dying law. The campaign has been spearheaded by Childline founder Dame Esther Rantzen, who has terminal lung cancer and whom signatories said had witnessed people “suffer beyond imagining as they died.”
Opponents, including some peers and disability-rights groups, have warned of a “slippery slope” and said the law could place pressure on vulnerable people who fear becoming a burden on family or public services. Critics also highlight the legal and ethical complexities of permitting assistance in dying and the safeguards required to prevent coercion.
When the bill reached the Commons, Conservative MP Danny Kruger — who has argued for close scrutiny of the measure — said support was “ebbing away fast” and urged the Lords to examine how the bill would operate and to introduce amendments to make it safer or to reject it. The House of Lords last debated assisted-dying legislation in 2021, but that effort was abandoned after it ran out of time at committee stage. A similar bill was defeated in the House of Commons in 2015.
Under current UK law, it is a criminal offence to assist another person to die, a policy that has led some terminally ill patients to travel abroad for assistance at clinics such as Dignitas in Switzerland. Proponents of the bill say its safeguards — including medical assessment and High Court oversight — are designed to reduce the need for such travel and to protect vulnerable people.
Peers are expected to scrutinise the bill line by line and may propose amendments. If the House of Lords passes the measure without significant change, it would return to the Commons for further consideration. Campaigners on both sides of the issue are preparing submissions and briefings for peers as the debate approaches, underscoring the contentious legal and moral questions that have persisted in Britain for more than a decade.