The bill was introduced by Labour backbench MP Kim Leadbeater in October 2024 after she was chosen first by ballot for PMBs.

[1] This is distinct from euthanasia which is intentionally ending another person's life to relieve suffering, which is also illegal in England and Wales.

[3] On 19 December 2023, journalist and television presenter Dame Esther Rantzen, who has terminal lung cancer, said she joined the assisted suicide clinic Dignitas in Switzerland where it is legal and permits foreigners to use the service.

"[5] On 13 March, Starmer pledged to give MPs a vote on assisted suicide if Labour won the 2024 general election.[6].

In October 2024, Starmer said that he was "pleased" that there would be a vote on assisted suicide, as it allowed him to keep his promise to his friend Esther Rantzen.

In September 2024, Kim Leadbeater, Labour MP for Spen Valley, was drawn first in the ballot for private members' bills.

On 10 February 2025 Leadbeater suggested removing the need for administration of assisted suicide to overseen by the judiciary, which had originally been one of the key components of the safeguards for her bill.

[19] Davey said it would be a free vote for his party's MP's, but argued that the terminally ill can have a good standard of living and that elderly people may feel pressure from family members to commit assisted suicide.

They said that this, along with this Parliament introducing a significantly above average of new MPs, made the process flawed and did not give the bill proper scrutiny.

They argued that unlike wealthy individuals who have stable finances and good palliative care in cases of terminal illness, poor people who may struggle to pay for social care may feel obliged to die to maintain finances for their family, or feel unintended pressure to proceed with assisted dying as they are taking up a valuable bed in the hospital.

Brown said: "An assisted dying law, however well intended, would alter society’s attitude towards elderly, seriously ill and disabled people, even if only subliminally".