British assisted suicide bill has been delayed

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

I have good news. The UK assisted suicide bill that is sponsored by Kim Leadbeater (MP) will be delayed. The Leadbeater assisted suicide bill was originally scheduled for its report stage on April 25, 2025, but it has now been delayed until May 16, 2025.

Altha Adu reported for The Guardian on April 8, 2025 that:

The bill, which has undergone a significant number of changes since the initial vote in November, will now return to the Commons on 16 May, instead of 25 April, for its report stage and votes if time allows.

In a letter to parliamentary colleagues, the day before Easter recess begins, Kim Leadbeater said she was “absolutely confident” that postponing the vote would not delay the bill’s passage towards royal assent.

Labour MPs opposed to the legislation had raised concerns with the timing of the vote, fearing their colleagues would not have enough time to consider the bill’s changes during their final week of local election campaigning.

The delay is significant since, if passed in the Commons, the bill will still need to be debated and passed in the House of Lords. 

There were significant changes to the assisted suicide bill, in committee, including the removal of the judicial approval for a death being replaced with a panel of experts (death panel) and the delay in implementation of the bill until January 2029.

There have been many complaints concerning amendments to the bill that would have prevented assisted suicide for vulnerable groups, including people with disabilities, people with mental illness and people with Anorexia, being rejected.

The delay also provides more time to defeat the bill.

The 2024 Netherlands euthanasia data, that was recently released, proving that once euthanasia and/or assisted suicide are legalized that the number and types of approvals for death will continually increase.