94 m. ago I hope this is the last piece I ever have to write about assisted dying | Polly Toynbee

Today’s vote is on a knife edge. MPs must take their chance to drive forward personal freedoms – and add to Labour’s legacyMPs, read this horror before you vote today. Here’s how some people are slowly dying, right now, in mortal agony untreatable by the best palliative care: “Some will retch at the stench of their own body rotting. Some will vomit their own faeces. Some will suffocate, slowly, inexorably, over several days.” An average of 17 people a day are dying these bad deaths, according to 2019 figures, as reported by palliative care professionals who see it happen.The Inescapable Truth, a report from Dignity in Dying, revealed what is usually kept hidden from us: the shocking last months for the unluckiest. It could happen to you or me. The assisted dying bill’s final Commons vote today is no abstract debate about slippery slopes or what God wants: to do nothing is to inflict torture on many.Polly Toynbee is a Guardian columnistIn the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contact...

Events

7 h. ago Assisted dying law faces crunch Commons vote as MPs switch sides

The relatively narrow majority of 55 from the historic yes vote in November means every vote will count on Friday.

Politics

7 h. ago Assisted dying latest: Landmark bill hangs in balance ahead of crucial MPs vote

Campaigners making final cases as MPs prepare for final reading in Commons

Politics

10 h. ago Doctors told my Nana she had a short while left. They were wrong. She defied the odds and lived for almost a decade. That's why I'll be voting AGAINST the assisted dying bill: ROBERT JENRICK

Robert Jenrick has made an emotional appeal against assisted dying, as MPs prepare for a momentous vote on whether to let the terminally ill end their own lives.

Society

12 h. ago Terminally ill gran's heartbreaking message to MPs ahead of assisted dying vote

Jane Popplewell, 63, has been diagnosed with sarcoma, a rare and aggressive cancer, and fears she could die in pain.

Politics

12 h. ago The Guardian view on assisted dying: a momentous bill that needs further attention | Editorial

Kim Leadbeater has led a strong campaign, but concerns about the likely impact on vulnerable people remainThe central issue before MPs, as they decide how to vote on the latest version of Kim Leadbeater’s assisted dying bill, is how to value individual autonomy relative to collective responsibility for vulnerable members of society when making regulations around the end of life. Should terminally ill people be allowed to end their lives with medical help? If so, under what safeguards? The question remains ethically, medically and legally complex.Technological and social changes enabling people to live much longer have created challenges around the resourcing of care and experiences of ageing and dying. There are profound questions about how we manage the final stages of life – and what we owe to those living through them. Continue reading...

Events

13 h. ago MPs switch sides to vote no to ‘drastically weakened’ assisted dying Bill

The four Labour MPs confirmed their intention on the eve of a crunch Commons vote.

Politics

41 h. ago Keir Starmer signals support for assisted dying as MPs prepare for crunch vote

Keir Starmer said his position on the highly sensitive issue of assisted dying 'is long-standing and well-known' after he voted in favour of changing the law last year

Politics

44 h. ago What are Scotland's abortion laws as MPs vote to decriminalise procedure in England

MPs voted for an amendment to the Crime and Policing Bill in the House of Commons on Tuesday

Politics

45 h. ago Dame Esther Rantzen’s daughter ‘hopeful’ assisted dying Bill can pass major vote

MPs will gather for the next major vote on the Bill on Friday, which could see it either fall or progress to the Lords.

Politics

46 h. ago How Welsh MPs voted on decriminalising abortion in Wales and England

28 of Wales' 32 MPs took part in the vote - you can see how your MP voted at the end of the article

Politics

51 h. ago Labour MPs call for abortion to be decriminalised in Scotland after vote at Westminster

EXCLUSIVE: Lillian Jones and Joani Reid have urged the Scottish Government to make sure no woman is prosecuted for having an abortion.

Politics

59 h. ago MPs vote in favour of measures to decriminalise abortion in move to make biggest law change in more than 50 years

Labour MP Tonia Antoniazzi's amendment to the Crime and Policing Bill was supported, with MPs voting 379 to 137, majority 242.

Politics

59 h. ago MPs vote to decriminalise abortion – what is the law and how will it change?

MPs argued in the debate that the UK's abortion law had been ‘increasingly used against vulnerable women and girls’

Politics

59 h. ago MPs vote in favour of measures to decriminalise abortion for women

Labour MP Tonia Antoniazzi’s amendment to the Crime and Policing Bill was supported, with MPs voting 379 to 137, majority 242.

Politics

60 h. ago MPs back bill to end criminal penalties for abortion in key vote

Parliament votes on biggest shake-up to reproductive rights in England and Wales in 60 yearsCasey says in the past government has talked relentlessly about the need for better data sharing between departments.But she says there is a need to consider making this mandatory.I was there when the tragedy of Soham happened. We knew at that point that if we had had better data sharing there’s a possibility that we might have saved those girls’ lives. There’s certaintly an absolute clarity that intelligence would have been much faster in either avoiding it or or actually finding that dreadful human being earlier.And we’ve known that forever onwards. And so I think there is also an issue that the Home Office can’t drag their feet on, looking at police intelligence systems, given we’ve living in the 21st century. Probably everbody in this room can connect within seconds. Yet we had Befordshire police finding a young boy that was being, in my mind trafficked to London. But the data intelligenc...

Politics

60 h. ago MPs vote to decriminalise abortion in biggest change to reproductive rights in decades

Move opposed by senior politicians including the justice secretary Shabana Mahmood, who branded it ‘extreme’

Politics

60 h. ago MPs back major abortion law change to decriminalise women in landmark vote

Labour MP Tonia Antoniazzi urged the Commons to take a 'once in a generation' opportunity to change abortion laws, but critics said the move would be 'dangerous'

Politics

63 h. ago MP claims assisted dying could be ‘trojan horse that breaks the NHS’

MPs will likely vote on the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill on Friday, which could see it either progress to the House of Lords or fall.

Events

65 h. ago MPs to vote on decriminalising abortion – what is the law and how could it change?

The vote could result in a major change to how abortion law is policed in the UK

Politics