Members of the U.K. Parliament in London voted down a second attempt to legalize assisted dying on Friday (Sept. 11), defeating the bill 286-270 at second reading.
The legislation, reintroduced by Labour MP Lauren Edwards, would have given mentally competent adults in England and Wales with six months or less to live the legal right to end their lives under specified safeguards.
It was identical to a measure by MP Kim Leadbeater that passed the House of Commons before stalling in the House of Lords. The revived bill drew renewed opposition from Christian leaders and medical professionals.
"Such a sensible decision. It paves the way to concentrate on better social and health care for people with progressive illnesses," said Scott Murray, emeritus professor of primary palliative care at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland and a former medical missionary who worked for the Presbyterian Church at Chogoria Hospital in Kenya in the 1980s.
Murray recently raised concerns about the lack of medical accuracy behind the six-month timeframe often cited as a key legal threshold for assisted dying.
The government's equality impact assessment for the new bill also identified potential risks for ethnic minority groups. It said structural pressures involving poverty, poorer access to health care, lower-quality care and domestic abuse "could result in disproportionate numbers of ethnic minority people" choosing an assisted death to avoid financial hardship or escape abuse.
The U.K. Evangelical Alliance was among those campaigning against the proposed legislation.
"Parliament has voted to reject dangerous and unworkable plans that would have put the most vulnerable at risk," said Danny Webster, director of advocacy for the alliance.
"It is essential that people, especially the vulnerable, are treated with care and compassion at the end of their lives and not encouraged to end their lives early. With the rejection of assisted suicide, we continue to call on the government to ensure palliative care provides the best possible support for people at the end of life."
