UK Lawmakers Vote to Legalize Assisted Dying After Emotional Debate

Lawmakers in Britain voted on Friday to allow assisted dying for terminally ill patients in England and Wales under strict conditions, opening the way to one of the most profound social changes in the country in decades.

After five hours of debate in the House of Commons, they voted by 330 to 275 to support a plan that would allow doctors to help patients with less than six months to live to end their lives.

The vote was not the final word on the legislation: It will now be scrutinized in parliamentary committees and amendments to the bill may be put forward.

But it is a landmark political moment, setting the stage for a significant shift that some have likened to Britain’s legalization of abortion in 1967 and the abolition of the death penalty in 1969.

Assisted dying is legal in a handful of European countries, Canada, New Zealand, and in 10 U.S. states and the District of Columbia. The decision in Westminster followed weeks of fraught, often emotional public debate in Britain on a complex ethical question that has transcended political affiliations and provoked sharp disagreement.

The bill that lawmakers approved on Friday would apply to a narrow group: Applicants would have to be over 18, diagnosed with a terminal illness and have been given six months or less to live. Two doctors and a judge would be required to approve a patient’s choice to end their life, and fatal drugs would have to be self-administered.