MPs have voted against a fresh move to legalise assisted dying in a dramatic U-turn after the legislation was revived in parliament on Friday.
The bill was voted down by a majority of 16, after 286 MPs voted against while 270 voted in favour, despite it having previously passed two votes in the House of Commons, in 2024 and 2025.
Under the proposed terms, terminally ill adults in England and Wales expected to live for under six months could have been able to request an assisted death, provided it receives authorisation from two medical practitioners alongside a specialist panel.
Although approved twice previously by the House of Commons, the measures stalled in the House of Lords this April. Proponents denounced a "denial of democracy" after peers submitted hundreds of amendments, effectively filibustering the proposed legislation.
Here we take a look at how we got here and what is to come.
What happened today?
The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill was brought back in the Commons on Friday, with MPs delivering passionate speeches both in favour and against the legislation during a more than four-hour debate.
It is a private member’s Bill (PMB), also known as a backbench Bill, so is not government-backed.
The government has a neutral position on it, allowing MPs to vote according to their consciences, rather than along party lines.
What did MPs decide and what happens now?
In the second reading of the bill, put forward by Labour’s Lauren Edwards, MPs voted by 286 to 270 for the bill to be blocked.
It followed a number of emotional interventions from MPs across the House, with Labour MP Ashley Dalton - who has incurable metastatic breast cancer - urging colleagues to vote down the legislation.
It means the bill will not move forward for further debate in committee, debate and votes on amendments at report stage, and then another vote at what is known as Third Reading.
A bill to introduce assisted dying may return to parliament at some point in the future, with a bill potentially being reintroduced again by a private member’s bill, or by government legislation.
However, it is unlikely this will happen in the near future and could take years for another debate to take place, if ever.
What has the response been?
Campaigners against assisted dying welcomed the fall of the bill, which they described as a “victory for disabled people, terminally ill people, and everyone this bill would have put at risk”.
“As disabled people, we fight every day just to get support to eat, wash, leave our homes, and work, while palliative and social care systems remain dangerously underfunded,” campaign group Assist Us To Live said.
But campaigners in favour of assisted dying said the legislation’s failure to proceed is “devastating for dying people and their families”.
Sarah Wootton, chief executive of Dignity in Dying, said that while Parliament had rejected the legislation, assisted dying was inevitable and a question of “when, not if”.
“By refusing to send this bill back to the Lords, the House of Commons has endorsed the wrecking tactics of a handful of peers who stopped Kim Leadbeater’s Bill being considered properly in the first place,” she said
“It will be seen as a failure of our democracy that a Bill, supported by three quarters of the public, has been blocked in this way.
Amongst MPs, the response has been mixed.
A small group of MPs cheered and pumped their fists as MPs voted against the draft law, while others in favour of the bill expressed their disappointment.
Labour MP Jess Phillips, who is in favour of assisted dying, told The Independent: "I am devastated. But its not the end, it took many attempts to change abortion law, and so it will continue."
Former cabinet minister Liz Kendall said she was “deeply disappointed” to lose the vote, but insisted assisted dying “will happen eventually”.
“Because people deserve greater choice and control and to die with dignity & respect,” she said.
Did the Bill not run out of time earlier this year?
It did. The Bill, previously brought forward by Labour MP Kim Leadbeater, fell in April, having run out of time to become law before Parliament was prorogued that month, having effectively been talked out.
It had previously passed two votes in the House of Commons, in 2024 and 2025.
The second vote saw the majority in favour of the Bill narrow to 23 from 55.
On that occasion, 14 MPs switched from voting in favour to against, with some arguing the dropping of the previously promised High Court judge safeguard had “drastically weakened” the proposals.
What happened in the House of Lords?
Peers faced accusations of filibustering – or delaying – the Bill after more than 1,200 amendments were put forward in the House of Lords, with more than 800 of those tabled or sponsored by seven peers.
Opponents at the time branded the Bill “hopelessly flawed” while supporters accused them of a “denial of democracy”.
So, how did it come back?
Labour MP Lauren Edwards reintroduced the Bill to Parliament.
She said people were “quite rightly frustrated by the process not being seen to conclusion in the last Parliament” and that she “felt a responsibility to those people who really wanted this legislation to be brought in”.
She has appealed to her colleagues in the Commons to vote for the bill “so that we can respect the will of the chamber and we can have it go through the usual processes in the House of Lords, just like any other form of legislation”.
What does the Bill propose?
The proposed legislation puts forward a change to the law allowing adults in England and Wales, with fewer than six months to live, to apply for an assisted death subject to the approval of two doctors and an expert panel.
What is the current law?
Assisted suicide is banned in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, with a maximum prison sentence of 14 years.
In Scotland, it is not a specific criminal offence but assisting the death of someone can leave a person open to being charged with murder or other offences.
What is happening with assisted dying in other nearby jurisdictions?
In March, legislation that would have made Scotland the first nation in the UK to back assisted dying was defeated at Holyrood.
Jersey’s States Assembly passed its draft Assisted Dying Law earlier this year and on July 9 it was granted royal assent.
Only certain sections of the law – allowing for the service’s set-up and the establishment of a committee to approve guidance – have come into force.
The parts allowing people to request assisted deaths have not yet come into force and it is expected the full law will be in place in autumn 2027, meaning that is the earliest the first assisted death could take place on the island.
The Isle of Man’s assisted dying Bill is now unlikely to get royal assent before October, despite the Tynwald becoming the first parliament across the UK and Crown Dependencies to agree a framework for assisted dying back in March 2025.
It is thought the implementation period for an assisted dying service to be in place could be up to two years after a law is in force, meaning it could be late 2028 by the time the first assisted death takes place on the island.
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