After an emotional debate in the House of Commons, British lawmakers voted to legalize assisted dying on Friday. Supporters of the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) bill praised the result, though they cautioned that there's a long road ahead, with several stages to go before it can become law, the Telegraph reports. MPs were allowed to vote their conscience, and all the main parties were split. Prime Minister Keir Starmer voted in favor of the bill, but 147 members of his ruling Labour Party, around 40% of its MPs, voted against it, per the BBC. Some 92 Conservative MPs voted against the bill and 23 were in favor. The final vote was 330 to 275, with 38 MPs not voting.
The bill would legalize assisted dying in England and Wales. A vote is expected on a similar bill in the Scottish Parliament next year, STV reports. Under the England and Wales bill, terminally ill adults with less than six months to live would be allowed to request assistance in ending their lives, Sky News reports. Such requests would have to be approved by two doctors and a judge, and lethal drugs would have to be self-administered, reports the New York Times. It was introduced by Labour MP Kim Leadbeater. "I'm nearly in floods of tears because it's been a really emotional process," she said after the vote, per Sky. "But I'm incredibly proud. I think today we've seen Parliament at its best."
Labour MP David Lammy, the UK's foreign secretary, was among those who voted no. In a letter to constituents, he said he worried that if the law had been in place when his mother was dying, she would have felt pressure to end her life to avoid becoming a financial burden on her family the Guardian reports. Conservative MP Kit Malthouse was among those in favor. "The deathbed for far too many is a place of misery, torture, and degradation, a reign of blood and vomit and tears," he said, per the Times. "I see no compassion and beauty in that—only profound human suffering." (More assisted death stories.)