Assisted dying bill passes as MPs vote in favour of huge law change

Assisted dying could become legal in England and Wales after a majority of MPs voted for a Bill to introduce it. The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill would allow terminally ill adults with a life expectancy of less than six months to end their lives and MPs voted 330 to 275, majority 55, to approve it at second reading.

Encouraging or assisting suicide is currently against the law in England and Wales, with a maximum jail sentence of 14 years. However, Kim Leadbeater, the Labour MP who has put forward the Bill, said debate in the House of Commons on the issue is “long overdue” and, while not an easy subject, it is the job of parliamentarians to “address the issues that matter to people”.

She told MPs a more holistic view to care for dying people must be taken. Ms Leadbeater said: “This Bill will give society a much better approach towards end of life. We’re already seeing conversations about dying and death in a way that we haven’t seen, I don’t think, enough in this country.”

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Opposition and pro-change campaigners had gathered outside Parliament from early on Friday. Conservative MP Danny Kruger, the lead MP for opponents of the Bill, said he believed Parliament can do “better” for terminally ill people than a “state suicide service”.

Mr Kruger’s mother, Great British Bake Off judge Dame Prue Leith has been vocal in her support for legalisation of assisted dying. Mr Kruger branded the Bill “too flawed”, while Labour MP Rachael Maskell said the proposed legislation is the “wrong and rushed answer to a complex problem”, and “falls woefully short on safeguarding patients”.

The Bill will next go to committee stage where MPs can table amendments, before facing further scrutiny and votes in both the House of Commons and the House of Lords, meaning any change in the law would not be agreed until next year at the earliest. Ms Leadbeater has said it would likely be a further two years from then for an assisted dying service to be in place.

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