Article

2026-10-10 Britain

Why did the assisted dying bill fail in the Commons?

[Guardian] After two years of impassioned arguments, tearful personal testimonies, noisy protests and ethical dilemmas, the assisted dying bill for England and Wales failed on a knife edge.

Campaigners on the pro side largely blame the House of Lords for making it seem an impossible struggle to get the bill through parliament, after blocking it the first time by putting through more than 1,000 amendments so that it ran out of time.

The opponents are more inclined to think that they ended up picking so many holes in the legislation that it was bound to fail, as they raised more and more objections on safety grounds.

But the truth was that many MPs felt momentum was lost when it became clear it was not a priority of Andy Burnham’s government.

Although as Greater Manchester mayor he had said he would probably vote in favour of the initial private member’s bill, in July Burnham said he now thought the bigger issue should be to improve end-of-life support.

trailpic
How did your MP vote on the reintroduced assisted dying bill?
Read more
It suddenly became very unlikely that the government would throw its weight behind giving the bill its full backing or expending energy on policy development to help it succeed.

Burnham’s change of position was a blow to the pro campaigners after Keir Starmer had long given his tacit support to the first bill proposed by Kim Leadbeater, even though it was a conscience vote.

In private, many MPs also admit that another factor in losing support for the bill was that backing it did not do Starmer’s administration many favours. # id) ?>

Posted by Besoeker 2026-10-10 09:28|| E-Mail|| Front Page|| ||Comments [42 views ] Top

1 Assisted dying? I thought that is what the wait list is for at the NHS.

Posted by Procopius2k 2026-10-10 11:36|| 2026-10-10 11:36|| Front Page || Comments Top

2 Having watched several family members go through end of life from cancer and terminal illness, I am for some sort of assistance if they want to end it early.

That being said, this is always a slippery slope and will always end up like it has in Canada. Where the undesirable members of the country are killed off legally and a lot of times without their consent.

Posted by DarthVader 2026-10-10 13:52|| 2026-10-10 13:52|| Front Page || Comments Top

15:58 Skidmark
15:38 Besoeker
15:25 Grom the Reflective
15:16 Bangkok Billy
13:52 DarthVader
13:50 DarthVader
13:49 DarthVader
13:37 Thing From Snowy Mountain
13:25 DarthVader
13:18 Skidmark
13:17 DarthVader
13:17 Chantry
13:14 Chantry
13:08 trailing wife
12:14
12:13 Людмила Павліченко
12:01 Mercutio
12:00 Mercutio
11:59 Mercutio
11:57 Mercutio
11:50 Mercutio
11:49 Mercutio
11:48 Mercutio
11:46 Mercutio
Merry-Go-Blog