British lawmakers rejected on Friday a proposal to legalise assisted dying for terminally ill people, dealing a major setback to campaigners and bringing the latest effort to change the law to an end.
The result leaves Britain’s ban on assisted dying unchanged, extending a decades-long debate over whether terminally ill people should be allowed to end their lives with medical assistance and how vulnerable people could be protected from coercion if the law was changed.
Parliament’s lower chamber, the House of Commons, rejected the legislation by 286 votes to 270.
The bill would have allowed mentally competent, terminally ill adults in England and Wales with six months or fewer to live to end their lives with medical assistance following approval from a panel of professionals.
Bill falls
