An attempt to legalise assisted dying in England and Wales has been rejected by MPs. Passionate speeches both in favour and against the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill were heard during a more than four-hour debate in the House of Commons on Friday.
Bill defeated by 16 votes
The Bill was voted down by a majority of 16, after 286 voted against while 270 voted in favour. A small group of MPs cheered and pumped their fists while others could be seen hugging as the vote was read aloud.
The draft legislation had proposed allowing adults in England and Wales, with fewer than six months to live, to apply for an assisted death subject to the approval of two doctors and an expert panel.
What happens next
Another MP could try to bring a similar Bill on the issue next year but they would have to start the whole process again from scratch as they would not be able to use rarely-employed provisions in the Parliament Acts to prevent the House of Lords from blocking it. That option could have been available to Bill supporters if this piece of legislation had cleared the Commons.
Labour MP Lauren Edwards, who re-introduced the Bill after it ran out of time earlier this year, had previously warned it could be another decade before the issue came before Parliament again if this legislation did not pass.
Reaction to the result
Ms Edwards said the result was “hugely disappointing” and “heartbreaking” for those terminally ill people and their loved ones who she said had been “given hope when the Commons voted for this Bill last year”.
She added: “Assisted dying will come in this country, as it is already doing all across the world, but not soon enough. Parliament has dropped the ball today. It will be picked up again as it must be, because the law as it stands is simply too cruel and too unjust to be allowed to stand.”
Prime Minister Andy Burnham did not vote, having already confirmed he would abstain so as not to “unduly influence the debate”. The government was neutral on the Bill and MPs voted according to their consciences rather than along party lines.
Opposition arguments
Campaigners against it argued it contained inadequate safeguards and that it could result in some of society’s most vulnerable being at risk of coercion and choosing an assisted death because they feel like a burden.
Opposition to the Bill had been voiced by the leader of Catholics in England and Wales, Archbishop Richard Moth, who called it “wrong in principle” and “deeply flawed” as well as the Church of England’s Archbishop of Canterbury, Dame Sarah Mullally.
Medical colleges, including the Royal College of Psychiatrists (RCPsych), had also raised “serious concerns” about the Bill, saying there were “too many unanswered questions about the safeguarding of people with mental illness”.
Terminally ill MP Ashley Dalton, who voted against the Bill, warned it is “not a moment for celebration”, as they called on the government to “sort out social and palliative care”. Demonstrators in opposition and in favour gathered outside Parliament on Friday to make their voices heard on the debate.
