MPs are now facing calls to decide the future of the long-running and divisive debate on assisted dying, as a legislative attempt to change the law is set to formally fail on Friday.
The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, which has been making its way through Parliament for the past year and a half, is expected to fall without a vote at the end of a debate in the House of Lords, marking its last scheduled sitting before the end of this session.
Peers supportive of assisted dying shared their "regret" at the Bill's collapse, insisting Parliament "must come to a decision on choice at the end of life as soon as possible".
However, opponents praised the House of Lords for "highlighting the fatal flaws in this dangerous and ill-conceived Bill".
We look at how we got to this point and what the future might hold.
What is the Westminster assisted dying Bill?
The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill would allow terminally ill adults in England and Wales, with fewer than six months to live, to apply for an assisted death, subject to approval by two doctors and a panel featuring a social worker, senior legal figure and psychiatrist.
What is happening with the Bill now?
Friday, 24 April is the final day listed in the House of Lords for the Bill to be considered at what is known as committee stage.
It is the 14th day of line-by-line scrutiny at this stage of the parliamentary process by peers in the upper chamber.
The Bill had already had two days of debate in the Lords during what is known as second reading in September.
How did we get here?
The Bill was first introduced to the House of Commons in October 2024 as a backbench or so-called private members’ Bill (PMB) by Labour MP Kim Leadbeater.
It passed its first Commons hurdle, known as second reading, in November 2024, with 330 MPs voting in favour and 275 against – majority 55.
While it also passed third reading in the Commons in June 2025, the majority in support had narrowed to 23 – with 314 MPs voting for and 291 opposing the legislation.
Fourteen MPs switched from voting in favour to against at that stage, with some arguing the dropping of the previously-promised High Court judge safeguard had “drastically weakened” the proposals.
What has happened with the Bill in the Lords?
Without allocated time, as with other official Government legislation, the chances of a PMB completing all parliamentary stages are reduced and it can be more vulnerable in the face of any delays.
More than 1,000 suggested changes, believed to be a record high number for a piece of backbench legislation, were tabled in the Lords to the Bill when it reached committee stage.
As the legislation made slow progress through the upper chamber, supporters repeatedly accused some peers of time-wasting and attempts to filibuster or “talk it out”.
But opponents said they were simply doing their job of scrutinising legislation they say is not safe and needs to be strengthened.
Childline founder Dame Esther Rantzen, who is terminally ill with cancer and has been a strong advocate for a change in the law, urged peers not to “sabotage democracy”.
By convention, the Lords as an unelected chamber would not ordinarily block legislation introduced by a government whose plans have been endorsed by voters.
But as a backbench Bill, with this current Government having said it is neutral on the issue of assisted dying, some members may have felt more free to oppose and frustrate its passage through the Lords, especially given the slimmer majority with which it eventually cleared the Commons.
This is the furthest any such legislation on assisted dying has progressed through Parliament at Westminster.
What is expected to happen on Friday?
Peers will gather as usual for the latest sitting, when they debate various proposed amendments to the Bill.
The upper chamber typically rises at 3pm at Friday sittings, but as committee stage progressed and amid fears the Bill would run out of time, sittings were extended until about 6pm to accommodate further debate.
With no further scheduled sitting days, it is expected the Bill will fall at the end of Friday’s session.
Will there be a vote?
It is unusual for a vote at committee stage, although not unknown, with so-called divisions usually held on amendments to a Bill later in the process known as report stage.
Former justice secretary Lord Charlie Falconer, who sponsored the Bill in the Lords, said there could be a symbolic vote but he does not expect that to happen.
He said he expects the Bill to just “peter out without any decision at all”.
Is this the end of the road for assisted dying in England and Wales?
For this session of Parliament, yes.
But earlier this year, as the risk of time running out grew, Bill supporters said the Parliament Act could be invoked to override objections from peers.
The rarely-used legislation allows for Bills that have been backed by the Commons in two successive sessions, but rejected by peers, to pass into law without Lords approval, and backers have said they are confident the Act would apply if the Bill was taken through a second time.
Lord Falconer previously said it was “really important” that Parliament resolves the issue, and suggested that if the Parliament Act were to be used, the Bill could be approved “some time in the spring of 2027”.
Supporters of the assisted dying legislation say there are precedents for the Act being used in relation to so-called “conscience issues”, with seven Bills having been passed using the powers under section 2 of the law, including the Hunting Act 2004.
So what could happen next?
When the next parliamentary session begins, after the King’s Speech on 13 May – where the Government will set out its legislative agenda for the coming year – MPs will be able to propose a new set of PMBs.
A ballot is held to decide whose PMBs are debated first and Ms Leadbeater has confirmed she intends to enter the ballot once again.
In March, The Times newspaper reported that supporters had indicated there were “loads” of backbenchers prepared to revive the issue after the next session begins.
But dozens of peers have also written to MPs urging them not to force the assisted dying Bill through Parliament after May’s King’s Speech.
The peers warned that altering the law from the back benches, using a PMB, was the “wrong vehicle for a change of this scale and sensitivity”.
Labour’s Baroness Luciana Berger, who was a signatory to the letter, said the Bill would fall “because supporters have refused to engage with its massive flaws”, describing it as “unsafe and unworkable”, and adding that it presented a “danger to the vulnerable and a huge risk to our NHS”.
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