Editorial: ​MPs made the right decision on assisted suicide law - now they should get to work on improving end-of-life care

The vote to put an end to the latest attempt to introduce state-endorsed assisted suicide in the United Kingdom is a relief to many people.

​A country with any humanity should be focusing on treatments and giving its citizens the best possible palliative care at the end of their life – not helping them end it.

In the end, members of parliament made the right call, in a tight vote in which most of the Northern Ireland MPs were opposed.

The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill would have allowed adults with fewer than six months to live to apply to be given help from the NHS to end their own life. While this would have been subject to certain safeguards, they could not have prevented coercion.

It would also have fundamentally destroyed the relationship between the health service and its patients. Doctors are there to care and protect life, and asking them to sanction suicide for the terminally ill is fundamentally wrong.

The experiences in other countries where assisted suicide has been legalised varies wildly.

Many look at Canada as an example of how badly it can go wrong – where over 5% of deaths are assisted. That number would only grow.

There would always be pressure on some vulnerable and disabled people to end their life, whether that be through coercion from others or from the fact that they do not have the same means or opportunities as others.

Canada’s scheme is chillingly called Maid. We must be thankful that the NHS is not, yet, going down a similar path.

Campaigners for assisted suicide only want the best for people, and an easier death. But once that Rubicon is crossed, there is no going back.

MPs should now get to work improving the health service and making life as bearable as possible for people nearing the end.