About the Bill
On 29th November 2024, MPs voted by 330 to 275 to give Kim Leadbeater MP’s the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill a second reading.
The Bill was then examined by a Committee of MPs, where it was substantially amended, before being debated at Report stage by all MPs. On 20 June, MPs voted by 314 to 291 to pass Kim Leadbeater’s assisted suicide bill to the House of Lords, by a reduced majority of 23.
It then passed to the House of Lords, where it has been undergoing extensive scrutiny.
The Bill failed to pass through the remaining Parliamentary stages before the prorogation of Parliament, and so will not pass into law.
Despite it being very usual for private members bills to run out of parliamentary time, proponents of the Bill are pushing a misleading narrative that the Bill is being blocked by “a handful of unelected peers”. On the contrary, the Bill is so flawed that it was in no shape to pass in the time available.
What happens next?
This Bill will fall at the end of the session. However, proponents of the Bill are threatening to make unprecedented use of an obscure parliamentary procedure (the Parliament Acts) to try and force through the same fatally flawed Bill in the next session without it passing through the House of Lords.
What can we do now?
Please write to your MP, expressing how concerned you are about the idea of assisted suicide being legalised, and how relieved you are that the Leadbeater Bill has run out of time. The key points are:
- Your relief that the Bill has not passed
- Gratitude to the Lords for doing their job and giving it proper scrutiny
- The Bill has failed its parliamentary process because it is a bad bill
- Your hope that no more parliamentary time will be spent debating assisted suicide rather assisting people to live
- Your own experiences and concerns about assisted suicide
Please use our tool to write to your MP.
Write to Your MP
Enter your postcode to check how your MP voted with regards to the Third Reading of the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill and to send them your message.
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Watch the Webinar: How to stop assisted suicide
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Watch Dr. Dominic Whitehouse’s Webinar: The Case Against Assisted Suicide and How to Stop It
Dr. Dominic Whitehouse is a palliative care consultant. He recently toured the UK speaking at three major meetings, explaining why the legalisation of assisted suicide would be harmful to doctors, patients and society. Click below to view Dr Whitehouse’s talk at the SPUC webinar
Free 45 minute webinar
Essential knowledge to impact upcoming UK legislation
Assisted suicide is not a solution to pain
Good palliative care should ensure that pain is controlled well, and some people suffer horrible deaths due to adverse effects of experimental drugs used for assisted suicide in other countries.
Where assisted suicide is legal, one reason people choose to die is because they feel they are a burden on others.
People with disabilities and the terminally ill will particularly fear the passing of this law which could make them feel pressured to end their lives.
Most doctors remain opposed to assisted suicide
The majority of doctors in the UK remain opposed to the introduction of assisted dying. This opposition is strongest amongst doctors who work most closely with dying patients.
Earlier this year, SPUC reported on a recent Association of Palliative Medicine (APM) survey that found such doctors were “concerned” that a focus on “traumatic” and “negative” patient cases was being used to manipulate the British public into supporting assisted suicide.
Lives Worth Living: Visit Our Assisted Suicide Campaign Page
SPUC upholds the right to life from conception until natural death, and has played a part in resisting many attempts both in Parliament and in the courts to change the law on assisted suicide.
Please visit the the page to access free resources and find out how you can join our campaign.
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