LONDON, Sept 11 (Reuters) – British lawmakers will make a fresh push on Friday to legalise assisted dying for terminally ill people, hoping a groundswell of public support will help drive through a change in the law six months after a previous effort failed.
Opinion polls have long shown that a majority of people in the UK back the legalisation of assisted dying, and supporters hoped a parliamentary vote in 2025 in favour of it would pave the way for the country’s biggest social change in a generation.
But that bill failed in March in the unelected upper chamber, the House of Lords, after members ran out of time to debate hundreds of amendments proposed during that parliamentary session.
Lauren Edwards, a lawmaker in Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s Labour Party, is now bringing back the legislation to the House of Commons, the lower chamber, through a mechanism known as a Private Member’s Bill whereby an individual lawmaker selected in a ballot can try to pass a law independently of the government.
The government is neutral on the legislation, meaning politicians can vote according to their conscience rather than along party lines. In 2025, the legislation passed in the Commons by 314 votes to 291 against.
Under the proposed bill, mentally competent, terminally ill adults in England and Wales with six months or fewer to live would be given the right to end their lives with medical help, after approval from a panel of professionals.
Concerns over how to protect vulnerable ill people from coercion derailed the last attempt to legalise assisted dying. Parliament had rejected a similar bill 10 years ago.
‘PROGRESSIVE REFORM’
Edwards said that if the law was finally passed it would represent “the most pressing, progressive reform” of this parliament.
“It is time to… give terminally ill people the choice to exercise some control over the manner of their deaths,” she wrote in the Guardian newspaper.
“We owe it to them, and to the vast majority of voters who support them, not to sit back and allow a minority of unelected peers to stand in their way.”
A poll published by Ipsos on Monday showed two in three Britons support the legalisation of assisted dying in principle, though in some cases that backing hinges on additional funding being provided for palliative care.
Burnham has previously said the debate over legalising assisted dying should wait until the country’s palliative and adult social care systems have been fixed. He has said he will not vote on Friday.
(Reporting by Sarah YoungEditing by Gareth Jones)
