Assisted dying vote: Have your say as MPs pass historic bill on right to end life

We’ve been asking readers for their views as part of our poll.

Liz H, from Sussex, said after the vote: “This is a great result. It doesn’t pass into law yet, but ensures further scrutiny and debate. I lost a dear friend who had MS when she secretly took herself to Dignitas. Due to our laws against this, she could not tell us her friends or say goodbye beforehand, but I applauded her bravery in choosing not to live a life of suffering any longer. And it was the most loving choice not only for herself but for her husband too, who was devoted to her but had to watch helplessly as her faculties were stripped slowly away.

“She definitely would have had more than 6mths to live but why force anyone to endure such torture. Bravo to the MPs who have voted to make changes to this law.”

Gail C, from Worksop, said: “I agree with having assisted dying provided stringent checks are applied. But I do think there should also be improvements in palliative care to provide a painless death to give the person the right to choose.”

The poll, which you can see at the top of the article, currently shows 68% of our readers back the bill.

It is hard to think of a better MP to take on the cause of assisted dying than Kim Leadbeater. She is energetic, engaging, persuasive and speaks human. She has no tribal reputation, so there is no barrier to winning over Conservatives, and she has experience of horrifying personal tragedy: her sister, the MP Jo Cox, was murdered.

But it would be wrong to say it was Leadbeater who won this initial push to legalise assisted dying. Under the surface, the most important contribution has been the one made by ordinary people, an experiment in participatory democracy by stealth. In the end, that was what delivered such a comprehensive victory for the change at this stage.

Read the full story from The Guardian.

We’ve been asking readers for their views as part of our poll.

Kay W, from Brixham, said: “Delighted that common sense prevailed today in the vote for assisted dying. Why on earth anyone should suffer at the end of life beats me, we should be allowed choice and dignity at the end.”

But Jackie T, from Coventry, said: “I honestly think this is well meant. Sadly I think it's going to be a slippery slope. Two doctors and a judge! You can't get a doctor's appointment with one! It'll just be a tick list.”

The bill 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.

The poll, which you can see at the top of the article, currently shows 71% of our readers back the bill.

Crowds of supporters surrounded and hugged MP Kim Leadbeater outside Parliament after her assisted dying private members’ Bill passed.

Photographers and videographers chased after the Labour MP as she walked over to Parliament Square to celebrate with the supporters.

People shouted “thank you Kim” as she was mobbed by members of the public, activists, and the press.

Speaking to the press, Leadbeater said: “It’s been tough, you know, these families have campaigned on this issue for years.

“I know what it means to people, if we hadn’t achieved what we achieved today I’d have let them down.

“I’m also really proud and really pleased that we had a very respectful debate in Parliament.

“It was robust but it was compassionate. Lots of people with different views, and I think Parliament showed itself in its best light today, and I’m very proud of that.”

Well, there you have it: the British parliament votes in favour of assisted dying, bringing us up to date with Oregon and the Third Reich, writes Tim Staley for The Telegraph.

We are not the same country we were; we do not rest on the same moral foundation. Rarely was the obvious question asked, “why did we not do this before?” Because for all the misery, muck and hypocrisy around dying – and, yes, morphine helps it along – we long stuck to the principle that the state does not take innocent life. No longer.

Read the full story from The Telegraph.

See how your MP voted using the form below.

Christian Hacking, a “pro-life” activist, said he was “very disappointed” by the news and that it was “sadly predictable”.

The 34-year-old from south-east London, who joined a protest outside Parliament on Friday calling on MPs to vote against the Bill, said: “There is now going to be an additional moral weight upon people to end their own lives which, once it percolates down, is going to affect the vulnerable.”

Hacking broke his back in a rock climbing accident in 2014 and described how the issue is “really personal” for him.

He said: “A number of people who went through the same rehab I went through, went to Dignitas to kill themselves because they felt they couldn’t cope with disability.”

“I know that that despair is very real and that hopelessness is very real but I believe our humanity is so much greater than our utility,” he added.

“Why are we talking about how people can be assisted in killing themselves when actually we should be talking about how we can supercharge the palliative care system to help people die with dignity?”

Assisted dying could be legalised in England and Wales after proposed legislation cleared its first hurdle in parliament.

After a four-and-a-half hour debate over Labour MP Kim Leadbeater's Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill on Friday - the first time assisted dying has been discussed in the Commons since 2015 - a majority of MPs backed it at a vote.

Encouraging or assisting suicide is currently against the law in England and Wales, with a maximum jail sentence of 14 years.

So what happens next? Read the full story from Yahoo News UK.

Sir Keir Starmer voted in favour of legalising assisted dying on Friday as the House of Commons backed the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill by 330 votes to 275.

A number of other senior ministers backed the Bill, including Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor, and Yvette Cooper, the Home Secretary.

However, the Cabinet was split, with Angela Rayner, the Deputy Prime Minister, David Lammy, the Foreign Secretary, and Bridget Phillipson, the Education Secretary, all voting against.

Read the full story from The Telegraph to see how your MP voted.

A spokesperson for Sir Keir Starmer said that the government’s position on assisted dying “remains neutral”.

The spokesperson said: “As is a matter of public record, the prime minister voted for the Assisted Dying Private Members’ Bill.

“The government’s position remains neutral, and we will respect the will of Parliament.”

Former prime minister Rishi Sunak has voted in support of the assisted dying Bill, meanwhile Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch has voted against.

Shadow chancellor Mel Stride, shadow home secretary Chris Philp, and shadow education secretary Laura Trott voted in support of the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill at its second reading.

Among those voting against the Bill were shadow foreign secretary Priti Patel, shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick, and shadow work and pensions secretary Helen Whately. The Conservative shadow health secretary Edward Argar also voted against the Bill.

Commons data shows the list of shadow ministers who voted for assisted dying: Mel Stride, Chris Philp, Laura Trott, James Cartlidge, and Victoria Atkins.

The list of shadow ministers who voted against assisted dying: Kemi Badenoch, Richard Fuller, Priti Patel, Alex Burghart, Helen Whately, Andrew Griffith, Claire Coutinho, Robert Jenrick, Edward Argar, Stuart Andrew, Gareth Bacon, Alan Mak, Mims Davies, Andrew Bowie, and Jesse Norman.

Dame Esther Rantzen described Kim Leadbeater’s introduction of her bill as “extraordinary”.

“She has a complete mastery of the facts. She knows exactly which are the most crucial points," she said.

“She put it all very clearly, taking interventions all the way through, and answering them without ever losing the thread of her argument.

“I was lost in admiration. She’s an extraordinary person.I was also very moved by the various doctors who took part, who gave painful but important descriptions of the kinds of death people suffer, which cannot be eased by even the best palliative care, and I’m sure their interventions were crucial.”

Pro-change campaigners said the vote in favour of assisted dying will leave thousands of people “heartened”.

Trevor Moore, chairman of My Death, My Decision said: “Thousands of people will be heartened by this result.

“Every day, 20 people in the UK are suffering unbearable pain at the end of their lives despite receiving the best possible care. For them, the choices are stark and harrowing: travel to Switzerland, and end their life by suicide, stop eating or drinking, or face and agonising natural death.

“These people deserve better. They deserve the dignity of choice at the end of their lives, and we are relieved to see MPs acknowledge this.

“We are glad that MPs listened to the public and the evidence, and we hope this Bill will pass its subsequent stages through further respectful and essential debate.”

Conservative MP Danny Kruger said he was disappointed by the vote.

Speaking to Sky News, Kruger said: "I'm very disappointed that we lost the second reading, but I was encouraged. It was parliament doing its job...

"What really did come across is everyone agrees we need to improve palliative care, which is my main concern, and a lot of people expressed real concern about this bill. It's only the second reading...

A lot of people said they wanted to examine it much more closely, a lot of people are very worried about the lack of safeguards or that it's not tough enough. There will be a further opportunity to improve it if we can, and if we can't, then I hope we'll be able to reject it."

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer voted in favour of the assisted dying legislation, parliamentary voting data has shown.

MPs have voted in favour of the assisted dying bill, with 330 MPs voting in favour of the proposed legislation and 275 voting against.

MPs also approved a motion to allow the committee considering the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill to have the power to send for people, papers and records as part of its sessions.

MPs are back in the House and awaiting the result of the vote.

A division has been called and MPs are now voting on the issue following several hours of robust debate.

Labour's Alex Davies-Jones said she would not be sharing her personal opinions on the matter and said that it was a matter for parliament to decide, not the government.

She praised campaigners on the issue and said it had encouraged necessary conversations about death up and down the country.

Labour's Rosie Wrighting, the youngest female MP to be elected in July, said she backed the bill.

"My constituents' stories and stories shared to day by colleagues across the House have showed me that it is truly unacceptable to maintain the status quo," she said. "Without a change in the lae, terminally ill people will continue to face the end of their life with very limited options."

We’ve been asking readers for their views as part of our poll.

Richard W, of Bournemouth, supports the bill. “As a paramedic working on the frontline of the NHS, I see the misery and suffering of people approaching the end of life, and the distress it causes their families.

“For an honest opinion of the topic of assisted dying, instead of asking those who are detached from the face-to-face realities, talk to the care home staff, paramedics, emergency departments and Macmillan nurses. Talk to those who are seeing these people suffer a slow, painful and prolonged death.”

But Jill E, of Durham, said: “Having cared for and cherished three loved ones who were terminally ill until their passing in my arms, I can say they treasured every last moment of their lives. Pain was managed… and they were surrounded by love.

“It concerns me that this bill may not protect those who are not supported by love, will feel pressured for financial reasons by others to die sooner instead of putting in place good care, excellent pain management and an environment where the person can enjoy their last days, however restricted.”

The poll, which you can see at the top of the article, currently shows 71% of our readers back the bill.

Green Party MP Sian Berry (Brighton Pavilion) offered her support to the Bill as she argued for simultaneous action to improve palliative care.

She told the Commons: “While we don’t have to choose between this Bill and better palliative care, we do have to give dying people the right to choose which ending is right for them, so please, please vote for this Bill today.”

Labour Dawn Butler MP recalled the life of Nina Lopez, who died last week after being given "six months to live in 2018".

"As we've heard it's not an exact science when someone is given a six-month diagnosis," she said.

She confirmed that 80% of her constituents did not support the bill and said she would be voting against it.

We’ve been asking readers for their views as part of our poll.

Deborah O, of Blackburn, said: “I definitely agree with assisted dying. Why would anyone want to suffer or deal with the stress and anxiety waiting for the fatal day to come?

But Shaukia M, of Surrey, said: “Doctors and judges will not be able to deal with the issues involved in deciding whether a person should be allowed to die.

“The information regarding safeguarding in the proposed bill is completely inadequate.

“I do agree that the suffering should be reduced, but not using the guidelines/suggestions in the bill as it stands.”

The poll, which you can see at the top of the article, currently shows 71% of our readers back the bill.

Those supporting a new law have said it will give choice to dying people in specific, limited circumstances to end their suffering early. However, opposition campaigners have warned of the risk of some vulnerable people, such as the elderly and disabled, feeling coerced into taking their lives, cautioning against the “inevitable abuse, pressure, coercion and mistakes” that could arise.

The Bill could also potentially put vulnerable women in coercive relationships with abusive men at further risk, one campaigner has told Yahoo News, saying that any law could be an 'incredible gift' to abusers.

Natalie Collins, whose ex-husband Aaron Swan was a serial abuser, said the bill would, in principle, create “another legalised way of killing women”, adding that it is “incredibly troubling”.

Read the full story from Yahoo News.

Conservative former minister Sir John Hayes told the Commons he will be “voting against this bill”.

He added: “This bill changes the relationship between clinicians and patients forever. It says to the NHS, your job is not only protect and preserve life, it is sometimes to take life. I am not prepared for our NHS to be changed in that way, and beyond that it changes society’s view of what life and death is all about.”

“There are many cruel and spiteful and ruthless and unkind people in the world and there are many vulnerable and frail people, and when those two collide, it’s not a good outcome for the second of those groups,” he said.

Labour's Florence Eshalomi said she would be voting against the bill - and highlighting the potential for abuse of vulnerable people and minority groups. She said: "Freedom in death is only possible if you have had freedom in life."

Eshalomi spoke about her late mother's struggle with a chronic condition, and expressed concerns that she would not have been supported in her desire to live in a country where assisted dying was an option.

We’ve been asking readers for their views as part of our poll.

Alan H, of Hayling Island, supports the bill, saying: “We all deserve the right to end our own suffering!”

But Jim F, of Dover, said that while he supports assisted dying in principle, “I do not trust the country and government to get the law right. I suspect that the law will either have loopholes allowing mistakes and incompetent decisions to be made, or it will be constrained by unnecessary bureaucracy.”

The poll, which you can see at the top of the article, currently shows the majority of Yahoo readers support the assisted dying bill.

Conservative MP Robert Jenrick said MPs leaving the chamber would "walk into a different country" if the assisted dying bill passes.

"I don't think it's a slippery slope, I think it is like a cliff edge," he said, adding: "There will be different conversations around kitchen tables, there will be different conversations had by couples lying in bed at night, on quite country walks when people talk about difficult things and they won't be conversations that I think make our country a better place."

A Labour MP who has lived with a disability all her life said she would support the assisted dying Bill, but described the decision as “one of the hardest that I have had to make”.

Marie Tidball (Penistone and Stocksbridge) said: “When I was six years old I had major surgery on my hips. I was in body plaster from my chest to my ankles, in so much pain and requiring so much morphine that my skin began to itch. I remember vividly laying in a hospital bed in Sheffield Children’s Hospital and saying to my parents ‘I want to die, please let me die’.

“I needed to escape from that body that I was inhabiting. That moment has come back to me all these years later. That moment made it clear to me that if the Bill was about intolerable suffering I would not be voting for it.”

The Labour MP said she had since lived a “good life”, but added: “That moment also gave my a glimpse of how I would want to live my death, just as I have lived my life. Empowered by choices available to me. Living that death with dignity and respect and having the comfort of knowing that I might have control over that very difficult time.”

MP Jess ato, said her focus for any piece of legislation is on the potential for abuse or coercion.

She said: "I am concerned that if this bill passes, we will see people coerced either by an abuser or by societal expectations, into ending their own lives.

"We don't want to think about it but abuse surrounds us. 2.3 million victims of domestic abuse in the last year, one in six older people experience abuse.

"The definition of coercive and controlling behaviour includes behaviour which repeatedly puts someone down, telling them they are worthless. Victims describe this as a 'drip drip' effect.

"And it goes unnoticed."

She explained: "Not just because we don't want to think about it - because it is hard for professionals to identify it without proper training and a lack of specialist support.

"There is no mandatory training for judges on coercive and controlling for behaviours. Nor is there effective training for medical professionals."

Downing Street declined to say how Sir Keir Starmer will vote on assisted dying legislation but said he is paying close attention to the debate in the Commons.

“He’s obviously paying extremely close attention to the debate. Ministers must be able to vote according to their conscience,” the prime minister’s deputy spokesman said.

He added: “People across the country will be paying extremely close attention to today’s vote, but this is a matter of conscience.

“It is for Parliament to decide changes to the law, and the prime minister is on record as saying he’s not going to say or do anything that will put pressure on other people in relation to their vote.

“Every MP will have to make his or her mind up and decide what they want to do when that vote comes.”

Labour MP Paulette Hamilton, who worked as a district nurse for 25 years, said: "I know how crushing it can be when someone you love is terribly ill".

"But... this bill in not the answer. I simply do not trust that this bill can be implemented ethically or safely," she said, adding that it would put pressure on disabled, ill or poor people to end their life so as not to be a burden on their loved ones.

The assisted dying bill does not prevent us from improving palliative care, said Conservative MP Alicia Kearns.

"Contrary to what has been said today in this chamber... Hospice UK said it would be totally inappropriate for us to suggest or even imply that hospice and palliative care services cane somehow address pain in all circumstances," she told the House.

She spoke passionately as she recalled her mother's experience dying from cancer.

"Her last words were 'I cannot go on like this', and thankfully for her there were only a few more days of pain but for others there are months, and before they get to those six months they will have suffered for years of excruciating agony," she said.

Conservative MP Ben Spencer, a consultant psychiatrist, urged MPs to vote against the Bill as he warned it places “implicit pressure” on vulnerable people.

The MP for Runnymede and Weybridge said there was “limited ability” to scrutinise the Bill, adding: “Many MPs support the principle of assisted dying but have concerns over implementation, resource implications and safeguarding – which is why I, along with other colleagues on both sides of the House, tabled a reasoned amendment to this Bill calling for an independent review and consultation before a vote in Parliament to provide a third way through.”

Dr Spencer later said the Bill “does not protect” people who are vulnerable to coercion or struggling with the burden of caring responsibilities, saying: “It risks placing implicit pressure on people already vulnerable at a time of life when they should be receiving our unwavering care and support. We should and must vote it down.”

Several hours into Yahoo News' live poll, more than 70% of people have said they feel strongly that the assisted dying bill should become law..

Dr Peter Prinsley MP, who has worked as a surgeon, described awful deaths he had seen, telling the House: "I am speaking here of people who are dying. Not people living well who have chronic or terminal diseases".

"I know the terrifying loss of dignity and control in the last days of life," he said.

"We are talking here of people at the end of their lives, wishing to choose the time and place to die - this is not some slippery slope. We are shortening death, not life, for our patients."

Conservative MP Sir Edward Leigh has said doctors would become "bringers of death" if the assisted dying bill were to pass.

He read letters from constituents, including a doctor, who had written: "For.. the vast majority of other patients, doctors are there to prolong life and palliate symptoms.

"Were this to change we would not be doctors in the eyes of many, but brings of death, agents of a state which counts its weakest members as expendable and worthy of nothing but an early grave."

Dame Meg Hillier spoke of her experience seeing her daughter in pain in hospital. However she said the bill would be a fundamental change in the relationship between the state and the citizen, and expressed her concerns about coercion.

She added that her constituents "were struggling to see doctors face to face" and said "we need to make sure that we sort out our buckling health service and sort out palliative care."

Labour's Tonia Antoniazzi confirmed she would be voting for the bill, saying that the stories shared by Kim Leadbeater had left her in tears.

She reminded the House that they must be mindful of the impact it would have in Wales.

Conservative MP James Cleverly, arguing against the bill, interrupted Lib Dem MP Layla Moran to challenge her support on the issue.

He asked her: "This is not a theoretical discussion, it is about the specifics of the bill and my honourable friend has highlighted numerous deficiencies.

"If this is such a good thing to alleviate pain and suffering, a right that we should be proud to pass - why are we denying it to children if it is a positive? Why are we denying it to children?"

LiMP Layla Moran said she would be voting in favour of the bill. "These are moral judgements," she said. "There are members who will be making the moral case today, and I want to hear them."

She added to MPs worried about the details: "May I urged them to reconsider the question" and said she would be answering "do I want to keep grappling with the detail until I get to third reading where I may at that point decide to vote no,"

She was interrupted by Conservative MP James Cleverly who said this was a debate about the specifics of the bill.

Dame Esther Rantzen has joked that she will "come back and haunt" MPs if they don't vote for a change to the assisted dying law today.

The broadcaster and campaigner is terminally ill and has been a leading voice in the campaign to change the UK law on assisted dying, which goes to a vote in Parliament today. Rantzen has said she will visit the Dignitas clinic in Switzerland if she has to at the end of her life.

Read the full story from Yahoo News UK.

Conservative MP Kit Malthouse, who has campaigned on the issue for years and is a co-sponsor of the bill, addressed issues that were raised against the bill.

He dismissed the idea that the UK's assisted dying laws could be based on those adopted by other countries, stating: "We are a 1,000-year-old democracy, we should be able to design legislation that deals with this issue for ourselves."

"Are you seriously telling me that my death, my agony is too much for the NHS to have time for, is too much hassle - of even the claim that it would overload the judges, that I should drown in my own fecal vomit because it's too much hassle for the judges to deal with?"

"We send things to the NHS and to the judges from this house all the time," he said. "Is anyone suggesting that we shouldn't be creating a new offence of spiking because the judges are overworked? Of course not.

"They will cope as they have done with a ll sorts of things that we have sent form this house over the years."

Conservative MP Danny Kruger has argued that “almost anybody with a serious illness or disability” could fit the definition of terminally ill under the Bill.

The East Wiltshire MP said: “The fact is that almost anybody with a serious illness or disability could fit this definition, and I recognise that these are not the cases (Kim Leadbeater) has in mind for this Bill, of course they’re not, but that’s the problem with the Bill.

“Because all you need to do to qualify for an assisted death, the definition of terminal illness under this Bill, is to refuse treatment – like insulin if you’re diabetic.”

He added: “In the case of eating disorders you just need to refuse food and the evidence is, in jurisdictions around the world and in our own jurisprudence, that would be enough to qualify you for an assisted death.”

Conservative MP Danny Kruger argued that doctors and palliative care professionals are “in a great majority opposed to a change in the law”.

Intervening, Labour MP (Cowdenbeath and Kirkcaldy) Melanie Ward said doctors she has spoken to have “serious concerns about this Bill” because “the doctor or practitioner who makes the assessment need never have met the person they are assessing, or been involved in their care at all.”

Mr Kruger (East Wiltshire) continued: “There is very clear evidence that doctors who work with the dying and the palliative care professionals are in a great majority opposed to a change in the law, both because they see the damage that it will do to the palliative care profession and services but also because of the dangers that they see to vulnerable patients.”

Jeremy Corbyn has released his statement on the assisted dying bill.

Diane Abbott has expressed concerns about people being coerced into assisted dying.

She said: "Coercion is something you will have no material evidence of and that you cannot see."

The mother of the House added that laws could change, giving the example of Canada, where assisted suicide has expanded from its original remit.

Diane Abbott said she was not against assisted dying but had reservations about the bill and did not think there were proper safeguards in place to pass the bill.

She added that judicial involvement could be "just a rubber stamp", and that safeguards were vital to protect people from "predatory relatives" and "from themselves" - outlining that people may choose to end their lives to avoid being a burden.

Cat Eccles, the Labour MP for Stourbridge, made a point of order as Conservative MP Danny Kruger spoke.

Kruger referenced other places "where assisted suicide is legal", but was interrupted by Eccles to make a point of order.

She said: "He's using the incorrect language, it's not suicide that's offensive - please correct your language."

He replied: "I'm sorry if offensive is given... What this bill will do is it will amend the suicide act of 1961... I'm afraid we do have to use the proper language here."