What's happening with the assisted dying bill?

Proposed legislation to introduce assisted dying in England and Wales is set to run out of time to become law when a final debate ends in the House of Lords on Friday.

In its current form, the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill would allow people over the age of 18, who are expected to die within six months, to be given help to end their own life, subject to certain safeguards.

A separate bill that would have legalised assisted dying in Scotland was rejected by the Scottish Parliament in March.

So how did we get here, and what might happen next?

What's happened so far

The bill was introduced to Parliament by Labour MP Kim Leadbeater back in October 2024.

It is known as a private member's bill because it was put forward by a backbench MP rather than the government.

MPs spent many days debating the draft legislation in the House of Commons and first voted in favour of the principle of the bill in November last year, by a majority of 55.

A smaller committee of MPs from both sides of the debate then spent months considering more than 500 proposed changes.

Further debate and votes on amendments followed in the Commons before MPs voted by a majority of 23 in June for the bill to progress to the House of Lords.

Since then, peers have been carrying out line-by-line scrutiny of the legislation and proposing their own changes.

Why has the bill not become law?

The bill can only become law if both Houses of Parliament agree on its final wording.

This must happen before the current session of Parliament ends, which is expected to be next week.

Members of the House of Lords proposed more than 1,200 changes to the bill - known as amendments - which experts believe is a record number for a bill proposed by a backbench MP.

Supporters of assisted dying have criticised the number of amendments, as well as the slow progress debating them, claiming this is a delaying tactic by opponents aimed at blocking the bill from becoming law.

They argue it is undemocratic for unelected peers to frustrate a bill which has already been approved by elected MPs.

Opponents insist they are not obstructing the bill but say significant changes are needed to make it safe and ensure vulnerable people are protected.

Despite extra days being allocated for debate, peers still have not considered the vast majority of amendments put forward.

As a result, there is no chance they will have enough time to debate them on Friday. This means the bill will fall when the current session of Parliament ends.

What is the government's position?

Before he became prime minister, Sir Keir Starmer had publicly supported the idea of assisted dying and during last year's general election campaign he said he would provide parliamentary time for a vote if a backbench MP proposed changing the law.

However, the government has said it is neutral on the bill and it is being treated by parties as a matter of conscience, meaning they have not instructed their MPs or peers how to vote.

Ministers have ruled out using time set aside for debating government legislation.

But the government's chief whip in the Lords gave peers an extra 10 Friday sessions to debate it. Fridays are traditionally used for non-government business.

What happens next?

Unlike government bills, those put forward by backbench MPs cannot be carried over into the next session.

This means any bill to introduce assisted dying would have to start the parliamentary process again from scratch.

Lord Falconer has threatened to use the Parliament Act - a rarely-used piece of legislation invoked when MPs and peers cannot agree - to force the bill through.

The act allows for a bill that has been passed by the Commons but rejected by the Lords to return in a new parliamentary session.

If an identical bill passes the Commons a second time, the Lords cannot block it again and the legislation will become law at the end of that second session even without the Lords' approval.

However, experts say this would be unprecedented for a private member's bill and challenging to implement.

The Parliament Act was last used in 2004 to push through a ban on fox hunting.

Supporters of assisted dying have said they will try and reintroduce the bill if they are successful in the Private Members' Bill ballot.

Twenty MPs are drawn at random, who then get a chance to propose a bill, with those drawn last given priority for debate.

But there's no guarantee a supporter of assisted dying will be chosen - or that their bill will get through Parliament.

Even if they are, MPs may not vote in the same way they did the first time round, so there's still a possibility the Commons could reject an identical bill.

Whatever happens, the debate over assisted dying is unlikely to go away any time soon.

Sign up for our Politics Essential newsletter to keep up with the inner workings of Westminster and beyond.