MSPs vote against bill to legalise assisted dying

MSPs have voted against plans to legalise assisted dying for terminally ill adults in Scotland.

It comes after politicians debated hundreds of amendments during multiple marathon sessions as the proposed legislation made its way through Holyrood.

The deciding Stage 3 debate and vote for the Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill took place on Tuesday evening.

Final results for the vote were 57 for, 69 against and one abstention. Health Secretary Neil Gray said he would abstain earlier in the day.

The result was earlier deemed too close to call, given MSPs were permitted a free vote instead of being "whipped" or instructed along party lines.

Scottish Liberal Democrat Liam McArthur, who introduced the bill, previously said it would be the "toughest and most comprehensively safeguarded assisted dying bill in the world".

Sturgeon and Sarwar voted against bill

Speaking to Sky's Scotland correspondent Connor Gillies, Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar said that he did not vote in favour of the law as "I didn't feel as if there were adequate safeguards".

Former first minister Nicola Sturgeon also told Sky News "I am relieved that it hasn't passed", adding: "I just do not think any bill could provide the safeguards for the issues that most concern me.

"And the issue that most concerns me is a situation where somebody, even if it is a small number of people, feels an internal pressure to exercise a right to die.

"It becomes not a right to die, but a duty to die."

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During the debate, Independent MSP Pam Duncan-Glancy, who was the first permanent wheelchair user elected to Holyrood, insisted the Bill would "put sick and disabled people at risk".

Green MSP Lorna Slater said, however, that everyone "should have the right to choose" as she recounted her father's assisted death in Canada in November 2025.

Dr Gordon Macdonald, chief executive of the Care Not Killing campaign group, said after the vote: "We are relieved that MSPs have decided not to back this legislation.

"We believe the Bill posed serious risks to the most vulnerable in society - including disabled people and those suffering from domestic abuse."

This is the third time MSPs have considered legislation on assisted dying, with two previous attempts having failed at their first vote.

Last month, Jersey voted to legalise assisted dying for terminally ill adults.

It came almost a year after the Tynwald in the Isle of Man became the first parliament in the British Isles to agree a framework for assisted dying.

However, the process of getting that framework on the statute book is yet to be finalised.

Meanwhile, at Westminster, the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill for England and Wales is progressing slowly through the House of Lords and is at risk of failing due to a lack of parliamentary time.

(c) Sky News 2026: MSPs vote against bill to legalise assisted dying