Christians have reacted with sadness after MPs today voted in favour of Kim Leadbeater's bill to legalise assisted suicide.
The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill won by a margin of just 23 votes - 314 in favour to 291 against.
The vote followed hours of often emotional debate in the House of Commons. It now passes to the House of Lords for further revisions.
The bill passed today will allow terminally ill adults in England and Wales who have been given six months or less to live, to request medical assistance to end their own lives.
Reacting the outcome, Ciaràn Kelly, Director of The Christian Institute, said: “Christians will feel grieved that MPs have shown so little regard for the dignity of human life, so little compassion for the concerns of vulnerable groups, and so little respect for the testimony of medical experts.
"But we must not give up. We must continue to pray. And we must now look to the House of Lords, where we can expect better scrutiny of this dangerous and unworkable bill.”
Leadbeater told MPs during the debate that her bill offered a "compassionate and safe choice" to terminally ill people and that it has "many safeguards" and "strict criteria".
Many MPs were unpersuaded, among them Conservative MP Sir Edward Leigh who warned that if it was passed: "We will have death on demand."
Labour MP Diane Abbott asked MPs, "What could be more unjust than to lose you life because of poorly drafted legislation?"
"Because there's no doubt that if this bill passes in its current form people would lose their lives who do not need to," she said.
Conservative MP Jeremy Wright, who is also a qualified barrister, said he could not support the bill because of the kind of society he feared it would create.
"I do not want to live in a society where any person, including the terminally ill, is encouraged in the belief that their lives are not valuable and valued to their very last moments," he said.
Christians and disability advocates were among the fiercest opponents of the bill in the run-up to the vote, but there were other critics too.
The Royal College of Psychiatrists had raised concerns about potential issues with the bill, particularly around the assessment of capacity and consent, and the implications for individuals with mental health issues.
The Royal Colleges of Physicians said it would be hard for a panel of experts to determine if a person was being coerced or had mental capacity.
Ross Hendry, CEO of CARE, which is campaigning against a change in the law, said: “This vote for assisted suicide is a blow to human dignity and people whose legitimate fears have been dismissed as irrelevant.
"Legalising this practice would send a harmful message that lives marked by illness and disability are not worth living, and lead to abuses against vulnerable and marginalised members of society: lonely elderly people, disabled people, victims of domestic abuse and others. Those who advocate for these groups will be feeling anxious and angry.
“People on both sides of the assisted suicide debate share a desire to relieve human suffering. In our view, facilitating suicides under an irredeemably flawed legislative regime is the wrong way to help struggling citizens. Palliative and end-of-life care requires significant, and urgent investment. Yet, conventional care would be harmed if assisted suicide becomes legal.
"We will continue to fight this Bill, along with many others.”
