# Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill

Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill is a private members' bill (PMB) which proposes to legalise assisted suicide for terminally ill adults in England and Wales. The bill was introduced by Labour backbench MP Kim Leadbeater in October 2024 after she was chosen first by ballot for PMBs. The political parties in Parliament gave MPs a free vote on the bill.

## Background and campaign

Assisted suicide is the ending of one's own life with the assistance of another. Assisting a suicide is illegal in England and Wales under the Suicide Act 1961 and can lead to a maximum of 14 years' imprisonment. This is distinct from euthanasia which is intentionally ending another person's life to relieve suffering, which is also illegal in England and Wales. In 2015, a private member's bill (PMB) called Assisted Dying (No 2) Bill was introduced by Labour's Rob Marris, which was a free vote for MPs. However, it was defeated at its second reading by 330–118. In May 2021, another PMB was introduced on assisted dying by Molly Meacher, Baroness Meacher, and received its second reading in the House of Lords but did not progress.
On 19 December 2023, journalist and television presenter Dame Esther Rantzen, who has terminal lung cancer, said she joined the assisted suicide clinic Dignitas in Switzerland where it is legal and permits foreigners to use the service. This led to the leaders of the main political parties represented in Parliament to say they would facilitate parliamentary time for a bill.
On 29 February 2024, the Health and Social Care Select Committee published a report on assisted dying with chair Steve Brine (Conservative) saying that: "The inquiry on assisted dying and assisted suicide raised the most complex issues that we as a committee have faced, with strong feelings and opinions in the evidence we heard."
On 13 March, Starmer pledged to give MPs a vote on assisted suicide if Labour won the 2024 general election. In October 2024, Starmer said that he was "pleased" that there would be a vote on assisted suicide, as it allowed him to keep his promise to his friend Esther Rantzen.
On 29 April 2024, MPs debated assisted suicide after a petition on UK Parliament petitions website reached the 100,000 signature threshold. By the time of the debate it had reached over 200,000 signatures. Before the debate, the then Conservative government responded to the petition stating: "It remains the government's view that any change to the law in this sensitive area is a matter for Parliament to decide and an issue of conscience for individual parliamentarians rather than one for government policy. If the will of Parliament is that the law on assisting suicide should change, the government would not stand in its way, but would seek to ensure that the law could be enforced in the way that Parliament intended". Campaigner Esther Rantzen pleaded to MPs to attend the debate.
On 16 June, then prime minister Rishi Sunak said that in principle that he was not opposed to legalising assisted suicide and stated that "It's just a question of having the safeguards in place and that's where people have had questions in the past". He added that the issue was a matter of conscience.
The UK July 2024 general election resulted with a Labour victory with Starmer becoming prime minister. In September 2024, Kim Leadbeater, Labour MP for Spen Valley, was drawn first in the ballot for private members' bills. She announced on 3 October 2024 that she would introduce a bill on assisted dying, and on 16 October 2024, the bill was introduced to the House of Commons. The full text of the bill (as presented for second reading) was published on 11 November 2024.

## Summary of the Bill

The bill (prior to committee) proposes to legalise assisted suicide for terminally ill adults aged 18 or older given that they meet these requirements:
* Must be a resident of England and Wales and be registered with a GP for at least a year
* Mental capacity to make an informed decision free from coercion
* Expected to die within six months
* Make two independent declarations about their desire to die, which must be witnessed and signed
* Two doctors must be satisfied the person is eligible; with a gap of a week between their assessments
* A High Court judge must hear from one of the doctors and may question the dying person or anyone else involved as they see fit. There is another two week gap after the judge has made their ruling

## Parliamentary passage
### House of Commons
#### First reading

The Bill received its First Reading on 16 October 2024.

#### Second reading

The second reading with a debate and votes from MPs occurred on 29 November. It was passed with 330 in favour to 275 against. Forty-six MPs did not vote; the Scottish National Party abstained as the bill does not apply to Scotland. Emma Hardy voted both Yes and No as an "active abstention".
The remaining stages of Parliament's consideration of the bill may proceed, including possible amendments to the bill.

#### Committee Stage

The committee was selected by Leadbeater made up of 23 MPs, 14 of whom support the bill and 9 of whom oppose the bill. On 10 February 2025 Leadbeater suggested removing the need for administration of assisted suicide to overseen by the judiciary, which had originally been one of the key components of the safeguards for her bill.
Members selected by Leadbeater to sit on the committee considering her bill. :
| Name | Party | Supports Bill? |
| Kim Leadbeater | Labour | Yes |
| Stephen Kinnock | Labour | Yes |
| Sarah Sackman | Labour | Yes |
| Bambos Charalambous | Labour | Yes |
| Marie Tidball | Labour | Yes |
| Simon Opher | Labour | Yes |
| Jake Richards | Labour | Yes |
| Rachel Hopkins | Labour | Yes |
| Lewis Atkinson | Labour | Yes |
| Naz Shah | Labour | No |
| Juliet Campbell | Labour | No |
| Daniel Francis | Labour | No |
| Sojan Joseph | Labour | No |
| Jack Abbot | Labour | No |
| Sean Woodcock | Labour | No |
| Kit Malthouse | Conservative | Yes |
| Neil Shastri-Hurst | Conservative | Yes |
| Danny Kruger | Conservative | No |
| Rebecca Paul | Conservative | No |
| Tom Gordon | Liberal Democrat | Yes |
| Sarah Green | Liberal Democrat | Yes |
| Sarah Olney | Liberal Democrat | No |
| Liz Saville-Roberts | Plaid Cymru | Yes |

## Debate

The Starmer ministry took a neutral stance on the bill, so Labour MPs had a free vote. The secretary of state for energy and climate change, Ed Miliband, said he supported the bill. The secretary of state for justice, Shabana Mahmood, and the secretary of state for health and social care, Wes Streeting, said they oppose the bill with the latter arguing people feel an obligation to die. Starmer did not publicly announce his voting intention prior to the second reading, and voted in favour of the bill as did 15 members of his cabinet, while eight voted against.
Leader of the Conservative Party Kemi Badenoch, Leader of the Liberal Democrats Ed Davey, and Reform UK leader Nigel Farage voted against the bill. Davey said it would be a free vote for his party's MP's, but argued that the terminally ill can have a good standard of living and that elderly people may feel pressure from family members to commit assisted suicide. He said that there should be more investment in palliative care. 80% of Conservative MPs voted against the bill but a majority of Liberal Democrat MPs supported the bill, as did three of Reform's four other MPs.
The mother of the house, Diane Abbott of Labour, and the father of the house, Edward Leigh of the Conservatives, wrote a joint op-ed in The Guardian opposing the bill. They argued the Assisted Dying (No 2) Bill 2015 was published seven weeks before MPs voted on it however this bill was published 18 days ahead of its second reading. They said that this, along with this Parliament introducing a significantly above average of new MPs, made the process flawed and did not give the bill proper scrutiny. They argued that unlike wealthy individuals who have stable finances and good palliative care in cases of terminal illness, poor people who may struggle to pay for social care may feel obliged to die to maintain finances for their family, or feel unintended pressure to proceed with assisted dying as they are taking up a valuable bed in the hospital. They concluded that health and social care needs improvement, in particular palliative care.
Among former prime ministers, Gordon Brown, Theresa May, Boris Johnson, and Liz Truss all argued against the bill. Brown said: "An assisted dying law, however well intended, would alter society’s attitude towards elderly, seriously ill and disabled people, even if only subliminally". David Cameron, who opposed the 2015 bill, supported the bill and stated that it was "not about ending life, it is about shortening death" and that the bill has "sufficient safeguards" protecting vulnerable people, and Rishi Sunak voted in favour of the bill, writing that he believes it to be "a compassionate change to the law".

### Public opinion

In March 2024, a nationwide poll of over 10,000 people from across England, Scotland and Wales was commissioned by Dignity in Dying (a pro-assisted suicide group), found that 75 per cent of respondents supported legalising assisted suicide versus 14 per cent who opposed. Muslims were the only demographic in which the majority opposed. Another poll by Ipsos found that 66 per cent of people supported allowing a doctor to assist a terminally ill patient to end their life, with 16 per cent opposing. The polls were condemned by opponents of assisted suicide, who said they do not reflect people’s considered opinions when they are given more detailed information. Furthermore, the majority of doctors in the UK oppose assisted dying based on their experiences working within the health system. Similarly, according to the Royal College of Psychiatrists, the majority of psychiatrists oppose the proposed bill on the basis that it would not provide suffucient safeguards.