The assisted dying bill has fallen in a bitter blow to terminally ill campaigners and the Express Give Us Our Last Rights crusade, after MPs voted 286 to 270 against the landmark legislation at a second reading.
The defeated bill could be reintroduced in a future parliamentary session, but this would mean restarting the lengthy process.
Another possibility is that a new assisted dying bill could be brought forward by the Government. However, Andy Burnham’s suggestion that palliative and social care must be fixed first means this is unlikely to happen for some years.
After almost two years of debate, the decision of MPs today means the law is now unlikely to change until at least the 2030s.
The historic Termianlly Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill was reintroduced by Labour MP Lauren Edwards after a previous version, put forward by Labour’s Kim Leadbeater, was blocked by a minority of peers in the House of Lords.
Opening the debate, she urged her colleagues to send the near-identical Bill back to the Lords “so that they can finish what they started” in scrutinising the legislation.
Ms Edwards added: “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.”
Addressing supportive campaigners in the morning, Lord Charlie Falconer — the bill’s sponsor in the House of Lords — said he believed that winning the vote would set a course for changing the law.
He added: “The more that people see the support that there is out there for this cause, the more people in there [Parliament] will finally reflect what the country thinks.
“The law at the moment is an absolute catastrophe and makes people suffer so much. So thank you so much for sticking with it. I am so sorry a few lords behaved so badly last time, but this time, keep with us. We will get the law changed and hopefully, today will be a massive milestone in doing it.”
During a tense debate, MPs once more spoke passionately about their reasons for supporting or opposing the bill. Claire Hazelgrove, MP for Filton and Bradley Stoke, revealed for the first time the harrowing story of her mother’s death last October.
She said her mum Ruth had lived with blood cancer since the age of 32, which progressed to a late-stage terminal illness in 2024.
Ms Hazelgrove said: “That autumn, while we debated the initial version of this bill, mum’s pain was excruciating. She had access to good palliative care, but what we learned the hardest of ways is that not all pain can be palliated. I will never forget seeing her writhing and screaming in pain at points, for weeks. None of us will. I know of no deity that would want that.”
Ruth was able to return home and made the decision to end her life on her own terms, Ms Hazelgrove said. But the law meant she could not tell her loved ones her plan or say goodbye. The MP added: “Instead, the harmful status quo meant that mum died alone, with photos of us around her. This is why our vote today, and our work on this, is so important now.
“If we were to leave it once again to another Parliament, it would be too late for other people with terminal illnesses who want this provision too but instead face the same impossible bind as my mum.
“In part of mum’s last note to us, she wrote: ‘I wish the assisted dying bill would have come into force in my lifetime. Maybe there will be hope for others in the future.’”
Meanwhile, Ashley Dalton, who is living with terminal breast cancer, argued against the bill. She said her diagnosis had left her intensely fearful of what was to come.
Ms Dalton added: “When you hear those words depression, anxiety grief, fear, shame and guilt come in bounds. Suicide risk is highest immediately after diagnosis and it usually falls quickly within three to six moths.
“I would be lying if I said that when thinking about all that was to come, I didn’t consider that it might just be fairer and easier on everyone if I just got the dying over with as soon as possible.”
The MP for West Lancashire said she is now living between scans every nine to 12 weeks, moving from treatment to treatment. She warned that the campaign around the bill risked implying that everyone with a terminal illness would have a painful death, without the option of the assisted dying.
She added: “The idea that it is not possible to alleviate pain and discomfort is false. It is nothing short of irresponsible to scaremonger people like me into believing our deaths will be horrific, when all the evidence suggests that with good access to palliative care, deaths are on the whole gentle.
“The answer is not to terrify people and their families, it’s to sort out palliative care and social care first.”
This story originally appeared on Express.co.uk
