British MPs rejected a proposal to legalise assisted dying for terminally ill people, dealing a major setback ⁠on Friday to campaigners and bringing the latest effort to change the law to an end.

The result leaves Britain’s ban on assisted dying unchanged, extending a decades-long debate ​over whether terminally ​ill people should be allowed to end their lives with medical assistance and how vulnerable people could be protected from coercion if the law was changed.

Parliament’s lower chamber, the House of Commons, rejected the legislation by 286 votes to 270.

The bill would have ​allowed mentally competent, terminally ill adults in England and Wales with six months or fewer to live to end their lives with medical assistance following approval from a panel of professionals.

Campaigners had hoped ​to ​build on support for a similar bill that passed the House of ⁠Commons last year but failed to complete its passage through parliament ​after running out of time in the House of Lords, the unelected upper chamber.

Because Friday’s measure failed at its first parliamentary hurdle it cannot be revived during the current legislative session, which is expected to run until the spring of next ​year.

Prime Minister Andy Burnham has previously said the debate over legalising assisted dying should wait until Britain’s palliative and adult social care systems had been improved, though his government remained neutral on the legislation and allowed lawmakers ​to vote according to their conscience.

Burnham did ‌not take part in Friday’s vote.

The legislation brought back by Labour lawmaker Lauren Edwards was identical to the bill approved by lawmakers in ​the previous session, a move supporters hoped would eventually allow them to use the Parliament Acts – which give the lower house supremacy over the upper chamber – to overcome opposition in the House of Lords if peers again refused to pass it.

During Friday’s debate, Edwards said ‌improving end-of-life choice did not have to come at the expense of palliative care. “We can and we should do both,” ​she said.

Questions ⁠over safeguards for vulnerable people remained central ​to the debate, with opponents arguing the bill could expose some terminally ill people to pressure to end their lives. Parliament also rejected a similar attempt to legalise assisted dying in 2015.

The issue has been debated in Britain for decades, with supporters arguing terminally ill people ⁠should have greater choice at the ​end of life and opponents warning any change in the law could put vulnerable people at risk.

A poll ‌published by Ipsos on Monday showed two in three Britons supported the legalisation of assisted dying in principle, though in some ​cases that backing ​hinged on additional funding being provided for palliative care.