Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill: Amendment 24

Parliament voted on 20 June 2025 to reject Amendment 24 to the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill by 266 votes to 213. The amendment would have barred someone from qualifying for assisted dying if their wish to die was substantially motivated by not wanting to be a burden on others or on public services, a mental disorder (including depression), a disability other than the terminal illness, financial considerations including inadequate housing, or lack of access to care and treatment. Its defeat means these factors were not written into the Bill as automatic disqualifiers. In practical terms, the vote means the Bill proceeds without an explicit provision excluding people whose motivation for seeking assisted dying is rooted in feeling a burden, experiencing mental illness, living with disability, facing financial hardship, or lacking adequate care. Supporters of the amendment argued that without such a clause, the Bill's existing safeguards around mental capacity and coercion are insufficient to protect vulnerable people from choosing death for reasons connected to social and economic circumstance rather than a settled wish to die. Those who voted against the amendment contended that the existing framework, including the two-doctor assessments, mandatory reflection periods, and High Court approval, already guards against these situations, and that codifying these factors as automatic bars would be unworkable or would exclude people whose wishes are genuinely their own. The vote cut across party lines, as the Bill carries no party whip. Labour MPs split 110 in favour of the amendment and 171 against, with 80 absent or with no vote recorded. Conservatives divided 58 for and 15 against, with 43 no vote recorded. Liberal Democrats voted 11 for and 51 against. Reform UK returned 6 in favour and 1 against. The Democratic Unionist Party's 5 MPs all voted for the amendment. Plaid Cymru and the Green Party both voted entirely against. The same day saw several other contested divisions on the Bill, which passed its Third Reading by 314 votes to 291.