UK lawmakers vote against bill to legalise assisted dying

Parliament’s lower ⁠chamber, the House of Commons, rejected the legislation by 286 votes to 270.

People sit on dried grass in a park outside the Houses of Parliament in London [File: Kin Cheung/AP)

Lawmakers in the United Kingdom have voted against allowing terminally ill adults in England and Wales to choose to end their lives, dealing a setback to campaigners and bringing the latest ⁠effort to change the law to an end.

The bill known as “The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life)” was voted down on Friday with a total of 286 members of Parliament opposing the proposal and 270 voting for it.

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It had proposed allowing adults with under six months to live to apply for an assisted death with the approval of at least two doctors and an expert panel.

Many individual lawmakers relayed their own stories both in favour of and against the proposal.

The government took a neutral stance, meaning lawmakers voted according to their consciences rather than along party lines.

The new UK leader, Prime Minister Andy Burnham, did not vote because he said he did not want to “unduly influence the debate”. His predecessor, Keir Starmer, who has left Parliament, was in favour of the proposed legislation.

Britain’s Prime Minister Andy Burnham previously reminded all members of Parliament to remain respectful of all views [Kin Cheung/AP]

The vote brings an end to a two-year debate in parliament about assisted dying, during which the House of Commons had backed assisted dying on two previous occasions. Their backing was not enough for it to become law because it was effectively filibustered by unelected lawmakers in the House of Lords.

Lauren Edwards, a lawmaker in Burnham’s Labour Party, had brought the legislation back through a mechanism known as a Private Member’s Bill, whereby an individual lawmaker selected in a ballot ‌can try to pass a law independently of the government.

“This is a hugely disappointing result – not for me but for the many thousands of terminally ill people and their loved ones who were given hope when the Commons voted for this Bill last year,” she said in a statement, referring to the lower house’s previous backing for the legislation.

Dignity in Dying, one of the groups campaigning for the bill, also decried Friday’s outcome as “a devastating setback for dying people”, but added: “This issue is not going away. Law change on assisted dying remains a matter of when – not if.”

Since Friday’s measure failed at its first parliamentary hurdle, it cannot be revived during the current legislative session, which is expected to run until the early next year.

Concerns with assisted dying

Questions about safeguards for vulnerable people remain a core part of the debate, with opponents arguing the bill could expose some terminally ill people to pressure to end their lives.

Gordon Macdonald, chief executive of campaign group Care Not Killing, welcomed the result, saying lawmakers had recognised concerns that changing the law could put pressure on people to end their lives prematurely.

“Our current laws protect vulnerable people and [members of Parliament] have rightly said they do not need changing; it’s time to ⁠move beyond this debate and fix palliative care,” Macdonald added.

Parliament also rejected a similar attempt to legalise assisted dying in 2015.

A poll published by Ipsos on Monday showed two in three Britons supported the legalisation of assisted dying in principle, though in some cases that backing hinged on additional funding being provided for palliative care.

议会下院（即下议院）以 286 票对 270 票否决了该项立法。

人们坐在伦敦议会大厦外公园的干草地上。[图片：Kin Cheung/AP]

英国议员投票反对允许英格兰和威尔士的绝症成年人选择结束自己的生命，这对活动人士来说是一次挫败，也终结了他们为改变法律所做的最新努力。

这项名为“绝症成年人（生命终结）”的法案于周五被否决，共有 286 名议员反对该提案，270 名议员投了赞成票。

英国安乐死法案因延误而失败（共3项，此为第1项），但支持者誓言再次尝试

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它曾提议允许预期寿命不足六个月的成年人在至少两名医生和专家小组的批准下申请协助死亡。

许多议员分别讲述了他们支持和反对该提案的个人经历。

政府采取了中立立场，这意味着立法者是根据自己的良心而不是党派路线投票的。

英国新任首相安迪·伯纳姆没有投票，因为他表示不想“过度影响辩论”。他的前任、已离开议会的基尔·斯塔默则赞成这项提案。

英国首相安迪·伯纳姆此前提醒所有议员要尊重所有观点。[Kin Cheung/AP]

此次投票结束了议会长达两年的关于安乐死的辩论。在此期间，下议院曾两次支持安乐死，但由于上议院未经选举产生的议员进行阻挠议事，下议院的支持不足以使安乐死成为法律。

劳伦·爱德华兹是伯纳姆所在的工党的一名议员，她通过一种被称为“私人议员法案”的机制重新提出了这项立法。根据这种机制，通过投票选出的个人议员可以尝试独立于政府通过一项法律。

“这是一个令人极其失望的结果——不是对我个人而言，而是对成千上万身患绝症的人及其亲人来说，去年下议院投票通过这项法案时，他们曾因此看到了希望，”她在声明中说道，指的是下议院此前对该法案的支持。

“尊严死亡”组织是推动该法案的团体之一，该组织也谴责周五的结果“对临终者来说是毁灭性的挫折”，但补充说：“这个问题不会消失。关于安乐死的法律改革只是时间问题，而不是是否会发生的问题。”

由于周五的提案在议会第一轮投票中失败，因此在本届立法会议期间（预计将持续到明年初）无法再次提出。

对安乐死的担忧

关于如何保障弱势群体权益的问题仍然是辩论的核心部分，反对者认为该法案可能会使一些绝症患者面临结束生命的压力。

“关爱而非杀戮”运动组织的首席执行官戈登·麦克唐纳对这一结果表示欢迎，称立法者已经意识到，改变法律可能会给人们带来压力，迫使他们过早结束生命。

“我们现行的法律保护了弱势群体，议员们也正确地表示，这些法律不需要改变；现在是时候结束这场辩论，解决临终关怀问题了，”麦克唐纳补充道。

议会曾在 2015 年否决了类似的安乐死合法化尝试。

益普索周一公布的一项民意调查显示，三分之二的英国人原则上支持安乐死合法化，尽管在某些情况下，这种支持取决于是否为临终关怀提供额外资金。