Assisted dying bill - latest: MPs vote in favour of historic legislation following fierce debate
The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill received 330 ayes and 275 noes, a majority of 55 votes
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Your support makes all the difference.MPs have voted in favour of the assisted dying bill following a fierce commons debate.
The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill received 330 ayes and 275 noes, a majority of 55 votes.
In a sign of the level of feeling on the divisive issue, more than 160 MPs made bids to speak during Friday’s Commons debate – the first on the issue in almost a decade.
The bill will now go to the committee stage where MPs can table amendments, before facing further scrutiny and votes in both the House of Commons and the House of Lords, meaning any change in the law would not be agreed until next year at the earliest.
The law would allow terminally ill adults in England and Wales with less than six months to live to end their lives, subject to the approval of two doctors and a High Court judge.
Warning: this article contains information that people might find distressing, including accounts of human suffering.
Today is one of those historic moments MPs do not want to miss
There are very few Fridays in Parliament where you even see an MP in the Commons chamber.
Today’s assisted dying bill debate is one of those historic moments almost all MPs do not want to avoid.
As Labour MP Kim Leadbeater opens the debate for her bill, the chamber is full of MPs on both sides of the chamber.
It is still not clear which way MPs will go but Ms Leadbeater has begun with some harrowing cases of people who wanted to end their lives while suffering dreadful pain.
There will be many more such examples on both sides of the debate today. The early exchanges make it clear that the issue of coercion could be decisive. It will fall to the undecided MPs to see if the way we view the relationship between the NHS and people changes forever.
Kim Leadbeater: Too many people are experiencing ‘human suffering’ as a result of the ‘status quo'
Labour MP Kim Leadbeater has told MPs about a former police officer who felt he could not visit the Swiss Dignitas clinic with his mother.
The MP for Spen Valley told the Commons: “Former police officer James waved his mum off as she embarked on her final trip to Dignitas. She had terminal vasculitis.
“James desperately wanted to accompany his mum and hold her hand during her final moments, but he knew because of his job as a police officer it was just not possible – indeed, she insisted he must not go with her. So she went alone. No one to hold her hand, no proper goodbye or funeral.
“These are just a few examples of the heartbreaking reality and human suffering which far too many people are experiencing as a result of the status quo. And the public know this.”
Ms Leadbeater later said: “Let’s be clear, we are not talking about a choice between life or death, we are talking about giving dying people a choice of how to die.”
Labour’s Kim Leadbeater opens debate
Labour MP Kim Leadbeater, the one behind the bill, said the assisted dying Bill will give people “choice, autonomy and dignity” as she opened the debate in the Commons.
The MP for Spen Valley told MPs: “It is a privilege to open the debate on the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill – a piece of legislation which would give dying people, under very stringent criteria, choice, autonomy and dignity at the end of their lives.”
She added: “And let me say to colleagues across the House – particularly new colleagues – I know that this is not easy. It certainly hasn’t been easy for me. But if any of us wanted an easy life I’m afraid we are in the wrong place.
“It is our job to address complex issues and make difficult decisions. And I know for many people this is a very difficult decision.
“But our job is also to address the issues that matter to people, and after nearly a decade since this subject was debated on the floor of the House, many would say this debate is long overdue.”
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