UK lawmakers vote in favor of bill legalizing assisted dying

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England and Wales edged closer to legalizing assisted dying after lawmakers approved a contentious bill in the House of Commons on Friday to allow terminally ill adults to end their lives.

The proposed bill would allow people over 18 with less than six months to live to request and be provided with help to end their lives, subject to safeguards and protections.

The vote came after hours of emotional debate that saw personal stories of loss and suffering shared. The sensitive discussion touched on issues of ethics, grief, the law, faith, crime and money and drew large crowds outside parliament as the debate went on. 

Although hugely controversial, a majority of Britons support the principle of assisted dying, according to several polls. 

It's also legal in 10 U.S. states: Washington, D.C. and the states of California, Colorado, Oregon, Vermont, New Mexico, Maine, New Jersey, Hawaii and Washington.

Supporters said the law would provide dignity to the dying and prevent unnecessary suffering, while ensuring there are enough safeguards to prevent those near the end of their lives from being coerced into taking their own life.

Opponents, including faith leaders, said it would put vulnerable people at risk of being coerced, directly or indirectly, to end their lives so they don't become a burden.

Under the proposals, two doctors and a High Court judge would need to verify that the person had made the decision voluntarily. Pressuring or coercing someone into ending their life would be punishable by up to 14 years in prison.

"Let's be clear, we're not talking about a choice between life or death, we are talking about giving dying people a choice about how to die," the bill's main sponsor, Kim Leadbeater, said as she presented the bill to a packed chamber.

She said it could take another six months before a second vote takes place.

"We now have months of further debate and I am hopeful that colleagues who have expressed concerns will either succeed in strengthening the bill to make it safe or they'll conclude they haven't been able to do that and then we can defeat it at the later stage, at third reading," he said.

Others in his Cabinet, including Health Secretary Wes Streeting and the Justice Minister Shabana Mahmood, voted against it. There were similar divisions across other political parties.

"I voted against the assisted dying bill, not out of a lack of compassion but because I fear that the law will widen in scope," Farage wrote on X. "If that happens, the right to die may become the obligation to die."

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.