The bill's proposals were criticised by medical bodies, and it failed to progress through the House of Commons after the Liberal Democrats declined to support it.
Following the death of his wife Josephine Hart to ovarian cancer, Maurice Saatchi campaigned for a change to the UK law which he believed held doctors back from recommending innovative treatments out of fear of litigation.
[1] Saatchi said that he believed that health provision in the UK was "innovation averse" and that the current standard treatment offered to people with cancer was "degrading, medieval and ineffective" leading "only to death".
[2] The proposed legislation enjoyed some popular support and favourable press coverage, but drew a critical response from some medical and legal bodies, patient groups and charities.
[1][3] An editorial in The Lancet Oncology said that Saatchi was promoting "precisely the type of emotional response that evidence-based practice seeks to avoid", that the current UK law already provided for medical innovation, and that the bill's provisions threatened to undermine the hippocratic oath.