‘I’m emotionally ruined’: MPs left bitterly divided over assisted dying bill

Unlikely alliances and concerns over vulnerable people’s rights have led to fierce debate and ethical uncertainty

When Kim Leadbeater came top of the ballot of private members’ bills, she did not immediately decide to attempt a generational change in the way the British state handles life and death. But, she says, it was an opportunity that rarely comes for a backbench MP.

The past few months campaigning for her bill to legalise assisted dying have exhausted her. It has been a licence for everyone she meets – in parliament, in the street, everywhere in her life – to tell harrowing stories.

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