- Published
The legalisation of assisted dying in England and Wales could move a step closer on Friday when MPs vote on a proposal to introduce it.
The bill would allow adults with fewer than six months to live to apply to be given help to end their own life, subject to certain safeguards.
Labour MP Lauren Edwards, the bill's sponsor, said there was a "real human cost to the delay" in passing the legislation - but opponents say it lacks sufficient safeguards, particularly for vulnerable people.
The last effort to change the law was supported by MPs but stalled in the House of Lords earlier this year after peers tabled more than 1,200 amendments.
Edwards said she was asking MPs to send the same law "back to the House of Lords so that they can finish what they started".
She said the Lords has an "important role in scrutinising, refining and often improving legislation" sent to them by the Commons, adding: "Let them amend this bill if they choose to and send it back to MPs for a final decision.
"That is how our democratic decisions are made and what should happen now.
"There is a real human cost to the delay in passing this legislation and correcting the injustices and cruelty of the current law."
Veteran broadcaster Dame Esther Rantzen, a high-profile campaigner for assisted dying, called on MPs to support the bill, saying her own life with terminal cancer had become "unbearable".
The 86-year-old said she was too frail to travel to an assisted suicide clinic in Switzerland as she had planned to, saying: "Everything I didn't want to happen I'm having to go through now."
Safeguards within the bill include a requirement that a person applying for an assisted death has the approval of two doctors and an expert panel.
But critics say it includes too few measures to protect vulnerable people from being coerced into ending their lives, while some say improving palliative care should be the priority.
Labour MP Ashley Dalton said she did not support the bill first time around and it "remains deeply flawed and unsafe".
She added: "I have very serious concerns about people, especially vulnerable people, being pressured or coerced into assisted dying. The safeguards within this bill are not enough to support them."
The leader of Catholics in England and Wales, Archbishop Richard Moth, called the proposal "wrong in principle" and "deeply flawed". The Church of England's Archbishop of Canterbury, Dame Sarah Mullally, wrote in the Telegraph that it would signal "we are a society that believes that some lives are not worth living".
Some medical organisations, including the Royal College of Psychiatrists and the Royal College of Physicians, have also said they have "concerns" about the bill's built-in guardrails.
Marie Curie, Hospice UK and St Christopher's hospice charity have all said they are neutral on the principle of assisted dying, but have repeatedly warned that access to quality of end-of-life care is too patchy across the country and the sector is severely lacking in funding.
The CEO of Hospice UK, Tony Porter, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "People will talk about they want choice at the end of life.
"The choice is to have good palliative care at the end of life and too many people at the moment are denied that choice."
Friday's second reading debate will allow MPs to consider the main principles of the bill and they must start voting before 14:30 BST.
If they vote in favour it will have cleared its first major hurdle and the next stage will allow MPs to consider possible amendments at committee stage.
However, their support could be conditional - just because an MP votes in favour of the bill at this stage in the proceedings, it does not mean they will do so at the third reading.
If MPs vote against the bill on Friday, it will fall. Supporters of assisted dying have said they would make another attempt to pass legislation as soon as was possible.
Both sides expect the result to be close and it could depend on how many MPs turn up for the sitting on Friday, a day when they would usually expect to be in their constituencies.
During the last parliamentary session, the bill was brought forward by Labour MP Kim Leadbeater and cleared the House of Commons on 20 June 2025 with a majority of 23.
Support for the bill fell between the second and third readings, before it stalled in the House of Lords.
Backers of the bill accused some peers of using delaying tactics to block the proposal, while critics argued it was not fit for purpose due to a lack of safeguards.
Opponents believe support for the bill in the Commons has weakened since the last attempt to pass it failed.
Edwards said she wanted to bring forward a bill that was identical to the one approved by the Commons last year. Under the terms of the Parliament Acts, if an identical bill passes the Commons in two successive parliamentary sessions then the Lords cannot halt its progress a second time.
Peers can still suggest amendments which, if agreed by the Commons, would be added to the bill.
Labour MPs Gareth Snell, who backed the bill last time, and Dame Meg Hillier, a prominent opponent of assisted dying, have co-signed a letter to colleagues voicing their concerns over the risks of the possible use of the Parliament Acts.
They warned MPs were "potentially being presented with a 'this or nothing' ultimatum on Friday".
Edwards has argued she does not want to use the Parliament Acts but MPs passing an identical bill would force peers to scrutinise the legislation without being able to halt its progress.
Opponents have warned that using this procedure would risk creating a law which disability charities, hospices and others have raised major concerns over.
Prime Minister Andy Burnham has said he will not vote on the bill on Friday, describing it as "a matter for Parliament to decide" and stressing that the government would officially remain neutral.
He has previously said he personally believes that funding for end-of-life care in the UK should be improved before legalising assisted dying is considered.
