Lauren Edwards MP sponsored the bill that was voted down on Friday (Alamy)
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MPs have voted against a bill that would have allowed terminally ill adults in England and Wales to seek medical assistance to end their lives.
At the vote following the bill’s second reading, 286 MPs voted to prevent the bill from passing, while 270 voted in favour – a majority of 16 in favour of the ‘no’s.
The bill would have allowed adults with fewer than six months to live to apply to be given help to end their own life, but with certain safeguards in place.
In the debate before the vote, Labour MP Lauren Edwards, the bill’s sponsor, criticised the House of Lords for stalling the previous assisted dying bill by tabling more than 1,200 amendments after it was supported by MPs.
“Many members would no doubt prefer to be working in their constituencies today,” she said.
“They are not, because a small number of peers in the other place chose to prevent any votes taking place on the substance of that bill.
“That decision means that one of the most significant national conversations that we have been having as legislators was brought to an abrupt halt. And who suffers detriment as a result? Clearly, the terminally ill and their families, who had a fair assumption that the will of the people they elected to represent them in this chamber would be respected.”
Labour MP Kim Leadbeater, who brought the previous bill forward during the last parliamentary session, said MPs had a “duty to restart the process”.
The issue has divided MPs, with opponents arguing that the healthcare system is not ready or equipped to deliver assisted dying safely and fairly, and that the government should focus instead on improving palliative care. Many disability rights campaigners were concerned that assisted dying could lead to vulnerable people being at risk of coercion.
Labour MP Patrick Hurley, who opposed the bill, recently wrote in The House that the government’s own new equality impact assessment on the bill highlights concerns about coercion and finds that ethnic minorities are also particularly vulnerable under this legislation.
“The better answer to suffering is to care better,” Hurley wrote.
“Invest in hospices and palliative medicine, support unpaid carers, improve social care, tackle loneliness and protect older and disabled people from abuse. Above all, ensure that nobody approaching the end of life feels that their family would be better off without them.”
However, Labour MP Simon Opher, who is also a doctor who has delivered palliative care, wrote for The House that patients should be given “a choice over the manner of their own death”.
“What we all agree on is that the status quo isn’t working,” he wrote.
“What we have now is choice at the end of life but only for the wealthy. It’s there for those who have £15,000 in the bank. They can travel overseas while others are denied choice. Inequity is at the heart of the status quo.”
The vote on Friday means that the issue is unlikely to be revisited by Parliament before the next general election.
