By Correspondent
Lawmakers in Britain will on Friday vote on proposals to legalise assisted dying for terminally ill adults in England and Wales, reviving a contentious debate that stalled in Parliament last year.
The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill would allow adults with fewer than six months to live to apply for assistance to end their own lives.
This will be subject to safeguards including approval from two doctors and an expert panel.
According to a BBC report, Labour MP Lauren Edwards, who has introduced a bill identical to the previous proposal, said she wanted to ask the House of Lords to “finish the job”.
The previous attempt to change the law ran out of parliamentary time before completing all the required stages.
Proposals introduced by Labour MP Kim Leadbeater in 2024 were approved by the House of Commons on June 20 last year by a majority of 23.
However, the bill failed to complete its passage through the House of Lords, where peers tabled more than 1,200 amendments.
Supporters accused some peers of deliberately delaying the legislation in an effort to block it.
Meanwhile opponents argued that the proposals lacked sufficient safeguards to protect vulnerable people.
Opponents say support for assisted dying has weakened since MPs last considered the issue.
However, they remain uncertain whether they have enough votes to defeat the bill.
Both supporters and opponents expect turnout on Friday to play a decisive role.
The vote is taking place on a day when many MPs would normally be in their constituencies rather than in Westminster.
Several MPs are concerned that such a significant change to the law could ultimately depend on their colleagues’ diary commitments.
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