MPs have voted against a Bill to legalise assisted suicide in England and Wales.
286 MPs voted against and 270 in favour of the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill – which would have allowed some adults with terminal conditions to end their lives through assisted suicide. Those with less than six months to live could have applied to end their lives under the law.
There were cheers in the House of Commons from opponents and deflation from supporters of the Bill which MPs had initially backed last year.
The outcome of this afternoon’s vote was described as “absolutely extraordinary” in a BBC report – as commentators reacted with shock that the House of Commons, which twice previously voted in favour of near identical legislation, rejected it.
“This is the end of this attempt to legalise assisted dying in England and Wales. There were some who changed their minds. But they were a minority,” reports the BBC.
“Ultimately opponents defeated this bill because they succeeded in persuading more of their MPs to turn up to Westminster on a day when many are typically in their constituencies,” the public broadcaster said.
It means that the Bill will now not proceed through Parliament in this session. In June 2025, a very similar Bill passed the Commons by 314 votes to 291 votes.
However, that previous Bill subsequently ran out of parliamentary time in the House of Lords and fell at the end of the parliamentary session without becoming law.
During a lengthy Committee stage, peers tabled more than 1,200 amendments to the Bill, covering issues such as eligibility criteria, protections against coercion, mental capacity and the deprivation of liberty.
Opponents raised concerns including pressure or coercion on elderly, disabled or vulnerable people; whether doctors can reliably determine that someone has only six months to live; and whether people may choose assisted suicide because they feel like a burden.
Supporters argued that terminally ill people should be granted greater choice and autonomy over the end of their lives.
Right to Life UK said that it was a “remarkable victory for the most vulnerable in our society.”
“In a victory for hope, compassion and life, MPs have voted against assisted suicide by 286 votes to 270, choosing to protect vulnerable people and stop our country going down a dark path that would have changed society forever.”
The organisation said that the debate had been “settled for a generation.”
“In both Westminster and Holyrood, parliamentary scrutiny and expert testimony have shown that assisted suicide simply cannot be legalised in a way that is safe,” it said.
Lauren Edwards MP, the Labour sponsor of the Bill, said after the vote: “Parliament has dropped the Ball today.” Edwards insisted that “assisted dying will come in this country…but not soon enough.”
Terminally ill Labour MP Ashley Dalton made an impassioned and moving plea for MPs to oppose the Bill.
“My days may be numbered, but that doesn’t mean that I want this chamber to rush through bad law just so I might have a chance to see it or use it,” she told the Commons.
“The last time this House considered this bill at second reading, I was keeping a secret”, Ms Dalton said. “Whilst honourable and right honourable members were debating the issue, I was grappling with my own terminal diagnosis.
“I was told I have stage four incurable metastatic breast cancer. I was overwhelmed with grief, fear, and anxiety. I was scared of what was to come, and I was fearful of how it would impact my family and my loved ones.
“I was scared that I was going to get really poorly, and thinking, how will I cope? How will my family cope? How will I be cared for? How will I afford it? How badly will it hurt? How long will it last?
“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 months.”
The MP, who recently stood down from her role as a health minister to undergo treatment, argued that the Bill “makes no provision to support this difficult transition or to create safeguards around it”, warning that an individual can “also be suicidal and have unmet mental health needs prior to developing a terminal illness, and then ask the state to kill them, without any assessment of their psychological health, just their mental capacity”.
“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”, she said.
“Having treatable depression, however, will not exclude anyone from an assisted death within this bill, and depression is common among people with terminal illness. But it is often treatable.”
A number of MPs spoke about their changed position, including former Labour Minister Janet Daby, who had previously supported the Bill.
She spoke today about concerns arising from her experience of someone who had been given a terminal prognosis but had subsequently recovered.
Former Health Minister Dr Zubir Ahmed also questioned the reliability of a terminal prognosis – as MPs raised concerns about the difficulty doctors face in predicting whether someone has six months to live.
Prime Minister Andy Burnham did not vote; he has maintained that his priority is improving palliative care and adult social care before changing the law, with Reuters reporting that he abstained over those concerns.