Terminally ill people are a step closer to being able to choose when they die after MPs voted to support a proposed change to the law.
The right to an assisted death will be granted to people with life expectancies of six months or less provided their request is approved by two doctors and a judge.
It is is one of the most significant and sensitive topics to have been voted on by MPs in recent decades – though it still needs to clear further rounds of voting before it can be implemented.
Two weeks ago BBC News interviewed two terminally ill people about their feelings on the assisted dying bill and we spoke to them again following the vote on Friday afternoon.
“I’m over the moon, I’m so happy,” says Elise Burns, whose cancer means she lives in constant pain.
“The bill is going to save so many unnecessarily painful and horrible deaths – as well as the families and loved ones who would have had to see them go through it.”
She was watching the debate on assisted dying from the public gallery in the House of Commons having joined the campaign in favour a few months ago.
Elise, 50, is terminally ill after breast cancer spread to other parts of her body, including her bones – her femur had to be replaced by a metal rod after it was rotted by cancerous cells.
Terminally ill people are a step closer to being able to choose when they die after MPs voted to support a proposed change to the law.
