LONDON (AP) — U.K. lawmakers on Friday approved a bill to allow terminally ill adults in England and Wales to choose to end their lives, taking it one step nearer to becoming law.

LONDON (AP) — U.K. lawmakers on Friday approved a bill to allow terminally ill adults in England and Wales to choose to end their lives, taking it one step nearer to becoming law.

The vote backing what is generally termed “ assisted dying ” — sometimes referred to as “assisted suicide” — is potentially the biggest change to social policy in the U.K. since abortion was partially legalized in 1967.

Members of Parliament voted 314-291 to back the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill following an impassioned debate. The majority of 23 was less than the 55 when they last voted on the issue in November, meaning that some lawmakers changed their minds in the intervening months.

Since November, the bill has been scrutinized, leading to some changes in the proposed legislation, which has been shepherded through Parliament by Kim Leadbeater, the Labour lawmaker who proposed the bill.

“I appreciate it’s a huge moment for the country,” she told Sky News after the vote. “It was a huge sense of relief because this is the right thing to do.”

The bill now goes to the unelected House of Lords, which can amend or delay policy, though it can’t overrule the lower chamber.

What lawmakers voted on

The bill would allow terminally ill adults over age 18 in England and Wales, who are deemed to have less than six months to live, to apply for an assisted death. The bill doesn’t apply to Northern Ireland or Scotland, which is holding its own vote on the issue.

One of the most important changes to the bill from last November was the dropping of the requirement that a judge sign off on any decision. Many in the legal profession had objected.

Now any request would be subject to approval by two doctors and a panel featuring a social worker, senior legal figure and psychiatrist.

Changes were also made to ensure the establishment of independent advocates to support people with learning disabilities, autism or mental health conditions and the creation of a disability advisory board.

After receiving a go-ahead from doctors and the panel, the terminally ill person would have to be capable of taking the fatal drugs themselves.

Another big change made was that “no person,” including doctors, social care workers and pharmacists, will be obliged to take part.

Divisive issue

The bill has divided lawmakers for months. The vote was a free one, meaning lawmakers vote according to their conscience rather than on party lines. Alliances have formed across the political divide.

Proponents of the bill argued that those with a terminal diagnosis must be given a choice at the end of their lives to relieve their suffering. They also said that the current situation discriminates against the poor as wealthy individuals can already travel to Switzerland, which allows foreigners to legally end their lives, while others have to face possible prosecution for helping their loved ones die.

However, opponents warned that the most vulnerable in society, such as disabled and older people, could be at risk of being coerced, directly or indirectly, into ending their lives to save money or relieve the burden on family members.

Both sides agreed on the need to make improvements in palliative care and greater investments in hospices to ease suffering.

Passions ran high outside of Parliament where hundreds of people gathered to make their voices heard.

Supporters were dressed in clothing emblazoned with the phrase “Campaign for Dignity in Dying,” while opponents held up banners urging lawmakers not to make the state-run National Health Service the “National Suicide Service.”

Supporters wept, jumped and hugged each other as the bill was backed.

“This is for all the people who couldn’t be here today,” said Sarah Wootton, chief executive of Dignity in Dying. “This vote sends a clear message. Parliament stands with the public and change is coming.”

Timeline for the bill

The legislation now goes to the unelected House of Lords. Any amendments would then go back to the House of Commons.

There’s also the possibility of legal challenge to the policy. Opposition campaigners such as “Right To Life U.K.” and “Care Not Killing” said after the vote that they weren’t giving up the fight.

Backers of the bill say implementation will take four years, rather than the initially suggested two. That means it could become law in 2029, around the time that the next general election must be held.

Government stance

There is clearly no consensus in the Cabinet about the measure.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer backed the bill on Friday, while his health secretary, Wes Streeting, voted against.

The government has said it will respect the outcome.

However, it’s not clear what the cost implications are, or how it would impact the NHS, hospice care and the legal system.

Nations where assisted dying is legal

Other countries that have legalized assisted suicide include Australia, Belgium, Canada and parts of the United States, with regulations on who is eligible varying by jurisdiction.

Assisted suicide is different from euthanasia, allowed in the Netherlands and Canada, which involves health care practitioners administering a lethal injection at the patient’s request in specific circumstances.

Pan Pylas, The Associated Press

Lawmakers in Britain have taken a historic step toward allowing assisted dying. The change would see England and Wales join other countries that allow terminally ill adults to choose to end their lives.

Lawmakers in the United Kingdom have approved a bill allowing terminally ill adults in England and Wales to end their lives.

The vote marks a major step toward legalizing assisted dying — one of the most significant social policy changes in decades and comparable to Britain’s partial legalization of abortion in 1967.

How did the vote go?

Members of Parliament voted 314 to 291 in favor of the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill after an emotional debate. The 23-vote difference was slimmer than the 55-vote margin in a similar vote last November, after some lawmakers changed their stance.

The legislation now moves to the House of Lords, which can delay or amend the bill but cannot entirely block it.

The bill has sparked debate across party lines and among the public. Supporters argue that people facing terminal illness should have the right to end their suffering with dignity. They also highlight inequalities, pointing out that wealthier individuals can travel to Switzerland where assisted dying is permitted, while others cannot.

Critics fear the law could pressure vulnerable individuals — particularly the elderly and disabled — into ending their lives due to societal or familial pressures. They warn of potential abuses and stress the need for robust safeguards.

Campaigners both for and against the bill demonstrated outside the UK parliament Image: Lucy North/PA Wire/picture allianceFragenErklären

The UK’s center-left Labour government remains divided. Prime Minister Keir Starmer supported the bill, but Health Secretary Wes Streeting opposed it. Ministers said they would respect the vote’s outcome.

Labour lawmaker Kim Leadbeater, who has proposed and championed the bill, said the law would “offer a compassionate and safe choice” for many people.

What does the legislation allow?

The bill would permit terminally ill people aged 18 or older in England and Wales, with a prognosis of fewer than six months to live, to apply for an assisted death.

The legislation was changed from a previous version that required a judge’s approval. Under the new plan, approval would come from two doctors and a review panel that includes a psychiatrist, a senior legal expert and a social worker.

The bill does not apply to Scotland or Northern Ireland. Scotland is considering its own version of similar legislation.

There is still uncertainty about the financial and logistical implications for the UK’s National Health Service, hospice services, and the justice system.

What makes assisted suicide so controversial? To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video

Assisted suicide is legal in several countries, including Australia, Belgium, Canada, and parts of the US. Rules on eligibility vary widely. It is distinct from euthanasia, which is legal in the Netherlands and Canada, where doctors can administer life-ending drugs at a patient’s request under strict criteria.

Edited by Sean Sinico

Britain’s Parliament voted on Friday in favour of a bill to legalize assisted dying.

The result came after hours of emotional debate and references to personal stories in the chamber, and it followed a vote in November that approved the legislation in principle. This vote was closer: 314 lawmakers in favour with 291 against the bill, compared to a 330-275 split eight months ago.

The “Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life)” law would give mentally competent, terminally ill adults in England and Wales with six months or less left to live the right to choose to end their lives with medical help.

The vote puts Britain on course to follow Australia, Canada and other countries, as well as some U.S. states, in permitting assisted dying.

Supporters say it will provide dignity and compassion to people suffering, but opponents worry that vulnerable people could be coerced into ending their lives.

Demonstrators protest against the assisted dying law for terminally ill people in London on Friday. (Isabel Infantes/Reuters)

Emma Bray, who has motor neurone disease, said she hoped the result would help people in her condition.

Bray, who is 42 and has two children, said she plans to starve herself to death next month to help relieve the pain after being told she only has six months to live.

“This result will mean that people will not have to go through the same suffering I have faced,” she told Reuters.

‘A dark day for our country’: priest

The bill now proceeds to Britain’s upper chamber, the House of Lords, where it will undergo months of scrutiny. While there could be further amendments, the unelected Lords will be reluctant to block legislation that has been passed by elected members of the House of Commons.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labour government was neutral on the legislation, meaning politicians voted according to their conscience rather than along party lines. Starmer had previously said he was in favour of allowing assisted dying.

Opponents of the bill had argued that ill people may feel they should end their lives for fear of being a burden to their families and society, and some lawmakers withdrew their support after the initial vote last year, saying safeguards had been weakened.

John Howard, a Catholic priest who led about a dozen people in prayer outside Parliament while voting took place, said he worried that some people would be forced to end their lives early under pressure from family members.

“I feel great sorrow and concern, particularly for the most vulnerable and disabled,” he told Reuters. “This is a dark day for our country.”

In the original plan, an assisted death would have required court approval. That has been replaced by a requirement for a judgment by a panel including a social worker, a senior legal figure and a psychiatrist, which is seen by some as a watering down.

The Labour lawmaker who proposed the bill, Kim Leadbeater, said that the legislation still offered some of the most robust protections in the world against the coercion of vulnerable people.

“I am fully confident in the bill,” she told the BBC after the vote. “The safeguards are extremely thorough, extremely robust, and I’m confident that this will help the people it needs to help.”

WATCH l Voting in November signalled likely passage: U.K. lawmakers back new bill to allow assisted dying Duration 4:19 Lawmakers in the United Kingdom voted in favour of a bill to allow terminally ill adults in England and Wales to end their lives with medical help, legislation that has stirred up a national debate about dignity in death and end-of-life care.

Opinion polls show that a majority of Britons back assisted dying in principle.

Hundreds of campaigners both in favour and against the legislation gathered outside Parliament on Friday to watch the vote on their mobile phones.

LONDON — British lawmakers voted Friday to legalize assisted dying — a final step in the House of Commons that means the practice will almost certainly be permitted in England and Wales in the coming years, marking a pivotal societal change. Lawmakers voted 314-291 for legalization following an impassioned, four-hour debate. Modeled on a law in Oregon, the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill will allow terminally ill people to choose to die. Those with less than six months to live will be permitted to seek lethal medication from the National Health Service, subject to approval of two doctors and a panel of experts.

The bill now moves to the House of Lords, the upper chamber of the British Parliament, for further scrutiny, but it is highly likely to become law.

“I do not underestimate the significance of this day,” Kim Leadbeater, a Labour Party lawmaker and main champion of the bill, said Friday as she opened the debate. “This is not a choice for living and dying. It is a choice for terminally ill people about how they die.”

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While assisted dying is illegal in most countries, a growing number of nations and jurisdictions have adopted legislation or are considering it. In England and Wales, assisting a death remains illegal and punishable by up to 14 years in prison.

A poll published this week found that 73 percent of Britons backed the assisted-dying bill.

While lawmakers voted in favor of the bill in November, at an earlier stage in the legislative process, uncertainty lingered ahead of Friday’s vote. Hundreds of demonstrators on both sides gathered outside Parliament. Some carried placards that read, “Let Us Choose.” Others held signs saying, “Don’t make doctors killers.”

Many of those who spoke during the debate shared personal stories.

Mark Garnier, a Conservative Party politician, spoke about witnessing the dying days of his mother, who had pancreatic cancer and endured a “huge amount of pain.” Garnier compared her ordeal to that of a constituent who also had pancreatic cancer but went through a state-provided assisted-dying program in Spain that made her “suffering much less.”

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Josh Babarinde, a Liberal Democrat, read out a letter from a constituent traumatized by the death of her partner, who struggled to breathe, was incontinent and repeatedly asked for her help to end his life. He then “stuffed yards of his top sheet into his mouth” in an attempt to die, Babarinde said, adding: “This could have been avoided with an assisted-dying” law.

Support for the measure ebbed in recent months, with a handful of politicians saying that they were going to switch their vote due to concerns about inadequate safeguards or insufficient end-of-life care.

Steve Darling, a Liberal Democrat, told The Washington Post that while he was “sympathetic” to the bill, he had changed his view because of “inadequate” palliative care funding, which in Britain depends heavily on charitable donations. “People might think, ‘I could bite the bullet and get out of this situation because I’m not receiving a service that gives me a decent quality of life toward the end,’” Darling said.

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Others who said they agreed with the principle of letting people choose to die but could not back the bill included Labour member Vicky Foxcroft, who cited her work with disabled people. “They want us as parliamentarians to assist them to live, not to die,” Foxcroft told Parliament.

The issue remains divisive, even within parties. Health Secretary Wes Streeting and Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood, whose departments will each be impacted if the change becomes law, both opposed the bill. Prime Minister Keir Starmer made it clear that he supports the measure, citing his experience as the country’s former chief prosecutor.

Over the past two decades, more than 3,900 Britons have ended their lives with the Switzerland-based organization Dignitas. A few people who helped them were investigated or arrested.

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The vote Friday was a free vote, meaning that lawmakers could decide based on their own conscience rather than along party lines. It was the second time this week that Parliament held a free vote, which is often allowed on issues of ethics or conscience. Earlier this week, lawmakers voted in favor of decriminalizing abortion in England and Wales.

One major revision to the bill in recent months was to eliminate the need for approval from a high court judge. No other country or jurisdiction with legalized assisted dying has that kind of stringent judicial oversight, and it was initially sold to some wavering lawmakers as a reason to back the bill.

That requirement was dropped in favor of a three-person expert panel — a lawyer, social worker and psychiatrist — that will oversee applications. Leadbeater said this would make the bill stronger, as members of the panel would have more relevant expertise and would be better able to spot red flags. Spain uses a similar kind of expert panel.

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Some professional bodies, such as the Royal College of Psychiatrists, remain neutral on the principle of assisted dying but opposed the legislation as written. Their concerns included the shortage of qualified staff for the expert panels.

The government’s own “impact assessment” found that the law could lead to 7,500 requests a year within a decade.

Some campaigners had hoped for greater eligibility, to include patients experiencing unbearable suffering with no prospect of improvement, or allowing a doctor to administer a lethal cocktail of drugs.

This bill allows assisted dying only for terminally ill patients who can administer the medication themselves.

Speaking in Parliament, Peter Prinsley, a Labour lawmaker, said that “as a young doctor, I found the measures that we’re debating today completely unconscionable.” However, he added, “now that I’m an old doctor, I feel sure this is an essential change.”

▶ Watch Video: Assisted dying bill passes first vote in U.K.

London — After hours of impassioned debate, British lawmakers in the House of Commons voted Friday to pass a bill that would allow terminally ill adults in England and Wales to choose to end their lives. The bill passed by 23 votes, with hundreds protesting about the divisive issue outside of parliament, from both sides of the debate.

The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill will now undergo months of scrutiny by the House of Lords, the upper chamber of Britain’s Parliament. The lords, who are not elected, can debate, delay and amend the bill, but they have little power to block legislation passed by the elected Members of Parliament in the House of Commons.

The central tenet of the bill is that adults over 18 who are deemed to have less than six months to live could — after a series of safeguarding checks — be provided help to end their lives, in the form of fatal drugs that they could self-administer.

Campaigners for a change in the law on assisted dying celebrate outside The Palace of Westminster, home to the Houses of Parliament, in central London, June 20, 2025, after the vote to allow assisted dying for terminally ill people by the House of Commons. CARLOS JASSO/AFP/Getty

In November, British lawmakers gave initial approval to the new law, passing it by 330 votes to 275 — a wider margin that indicates some members of parliament changed their minds before Friday’s vote.

Since the first vote, the original bill proposed by Labour Party lawmaker Kim Leadbeater underwent several changes, including the dropping of a provision that would have required a judge to sign off on any final decision granting a medically assisted death. The current bill requires any request to be approved by two doctors and a panel that includes a social worker, a senior legal figure, and a psychiatrist.

In a debate before the vote on Friday, Leadbeater told parliament about the many stories she had heard from people who witnessed friends and family suffer traumatic deaths.

“Not supporting the bill today is not a neutral act. It is a vote for the status quo,” she said, according to The Associated Press. “And it fills me with despair to think MPs [Members of Parliament] could be here in another 10 years’ time hearing the same stories.”

Leadbeater and other supporters of the bill argue that people with terminal diagnoses should have the right to choose whether to continue living. They have cited stories of people taking their own lives in secret because no-one could legally help them.

They also argue that it isn’t fair that people with enough money can currently seek life-ending care by traveling to Switzerland. More than 500 Britons have ended their lives in Switzerland, where foreigners can opt for an assisted death.

Protesters against a change in the law on assisted dying hold placards during a demonstration outside The Palace of Westminster, home to the Houses of Parliament in central London, June 20, 2025. CARLOS JASSO/AFP/Getty

Opponents argue that elderly or disabled people could be manipulated — overtly or covertly — into ending their lives, to save money or to relieve a perceived burden on loved ones. Others say better end-of-life and health care would be a better alternative.

Outside parliament on Friday, protesters faced off with contrasting slogans. Some wore clothes bearing the phrase: “Campaign for Dignity in Dying,” while opponents held banners calling the U.K.’s state-run National Health Service, the “National Suicide Service.”

The vote paves the way for what could be one of the biggest changes in social policy in the U.K. since the partial legalization of abortion in 1967.

If the bill passes the House of Lords, it is expected to take another four years to be fully implemented.