MPs urged to ‘grasp opportunity’ as assisted dying Bill back in ParliamentAhead of the debate around 70 MPs had put their names forward to speak on the Bill and a vote is expected to take place by 2.30pm.Debate is resuming on assisted dying (Nick Ansell/PA)PA ArchiveY. Áine Fox3 minutes ago
MPs have been urged to “grasp” an opportunity to legalise assisted dying and offer “choice and dignity” to the terminally ill ahead of a vote on a proposed new law.
The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill has returned to Parliament, after running out of time earlier this year.
On Friday, the House of Commons has a third chance to vote for or against a Bill that would allow 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.
Lauren Edwards, the MP who has re-introduced the Bill to the Commons, taking over from its previous sponsor Kim Leadbeater, has urged her fellow MPs to send the near-identical Bill back to the Lords “so that they can finish what they started” in scrutinising the legislation.
MP Lauren Edwards has reintroduced the assisted dying Bill to Parliament (Aaron Chown/PA)PA Wire
The Bill’s fall in the Lords in April prompted claims of a “denial of democracy” from supporters who criticised some peers for tabling hundreds of amendments and effectively talking the legislation out.
Ms Edwards said MPs on Friday were being asked to consider “who ultimately decides the laws that govern our nations” – a reference to the fact the Lords is an unelected chamber.
Opening Friday’s debate, she told MPs: “We can and we must improve both palliative care and support assisted dying.
“We must grasp that opportunity in front of us to create a holistic end of life care system that will deliver choice and dignity for every single one of our constituents.”
She said that, because of the four-year implementation period in the Bill, assisted dying would not be available across the two nations until 2031 at the earliest.
Ahead of the debate around 70 MPs had put their names forward to speak on the Bill – with the chamber’s green benches almost full – and a vote is expected to take place by 2.30pm.
While the Bill passed two votes in the Commons in 2024 and 2025, the second vote saw the majority in favour of the Bill narrow to 23 from 55.
Prime Minister Andy Burnham has already said he will not vote on the Bill so as not to “unduly influence the debate”.
His predecessor Sir Keir Starmer had voted for the legislation last year.
Conservative party leader Kemi Badenoch, warned against trying to “ram” through a Bill she branded “badly drafted”.
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Speaking to the Press Association at an event in London as the debate kicked off in the Commons, she said: “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. I think that’s wrong.”
While legislation has to pass both Houses to become law, supporters have previously suggested a rarely used piece of legislation could be invoked to pass the Bill this time around if it is stalled again in the Lords.
The Parliament Acts allow for Bills that have been backed by the Commons in two successive sessions, but rejected by peers, to pass into law without Lords approval.
Prime Minister Andy Burnham will not vote (Stefan Rousseau/PA)PA Wire
Childline founder and former broadcaster Dame Esther Rantzen has once again added her voice to calls for the law to be changed, but actor Liz Carr is among campaigners calling on MPs to vote the Bill down amid safeguarding concerns.
Dame Esther, who is terminally ill with cancer and receiving end-of-life care has confirmed it is too late for her to “buzz off” to Dignitas as planned.
She told how despite having “spent the money and made the plans” to go to the Swiss assisted dying clinic, she was now at the point where she is “too physically fragile to make the journey”.
The Archbishop of Westminster Richard Moth has voiced oppposition to the Bill (Stefan Rousseau/PA)PA Wire
Opposition to the Bill has 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 and the Royal College of Physicians have also raised “concerns” about the Bill and safeguarding society’s most vulnerable against coercion.
Marie Curie, Hospice UK and St Christopher’s hospice charity are all neutral on the principle of assisted dying but have repeatedly warned access to and quality of end-of-life care is too patchy across the country and that the sector is severely lacking in funding.
Six in 10 people support the return of the assisted dying Bill to Parliament, but a third of the public feel the law should only be changed if there is more funding for end-of-life care alongside it, according to new polling published earlier this week.
The Ipsos polling for the Press Association found surveyed 1,133 people aged 16-75 surveyed at the end of August.
With the Bill’s return, end-of-life campaigners insist “the need for more urgent and ambitious action to fix end-of-life care could not be clearer”.
Demonstrators for and against the Bill once again gathered outside Parliament ahead of the vote.
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