Assisted dying is a step closer to being made legal in England and Wales after the proposed legislation cleared the British House of Commons in a historic vote.
A majority of MPs backed a bill that would allow terminally ill adults with a life expectancy of less than six months to end their lives.
Despite warnings from opponents around the safety of a bill they argued has been rushed through, the proposed legislation took another step in the parliamentary process.
MPs voted 314 to 291, majority 23, to approve Kim Leadbeater’s Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill at third reading.
This means the bill has completed its first stages in the Commons and will move to the House of Lords for further debate and scrutiny.
Both Houses must agree the final text of the bill before it can be signed into law.
Due to the four-year implementation period, it could be 2029 - potentially coinciding with the end of the current UK government’s Parliament - before assisted dying is offered.
Encouraging or assisting suicide is currently against the law in England and Wales, with a maximum jail sentence of 14 years.
Supporters of assisted dying have described the current law as not being fit for purpose, with desperate terminally ill people feeling the need to end their lives in secret or go abroad to Dignitas alone, for fear that loved ones will be prosecuted for helping them.
Friday was the first time the bill was debated and voted on in its entirety since last year’s historic yes vote, when MPs supported the principle of assisted dying for England and Wales by a majority of 55 at second reading.
Labour MP Ms Leadbeater has argued her Bill will “correct the profound injustices of the status quo and to offer a compassionate and safe choice to terminally ill people who want to make it”.
During an hours-long date on Friday, MPs on both sides of the issue recalled personal stories of loved ones who had died.
A UK Conservative party former minister Sir James Cleverly, who led the opposition to the bill in the Commons, spoke of a close friend who died “painfully” from cancer.
He said he comes at the divisive issue “not from a position of faith nor from a position of ignorance”, and was driven in his opposition by “concerns about the practicalities” of the bill.
MPs had a free vote on the bill, meaning they decided according to their conscience rather than along party lines.
The proposed legislation would allow terminally ill adults in England and Wales, with fewer than six months to live, to apply for an assisted death, subject to approval by two doctors and a panel featuring a social worker, senior legal figure and psychiatrist. Public support for a change in the law remains high, according to a YouGov poll published on the eve of the vote.
The survey of 2,003 adults in Britain, suggested 73% of those asked last month were supportive of the bill, while the proportion of people who feel assisted dying should be legal in principle stood at 75%.
