Under 1,000 patients a year may opt for assisted dying if bill passes, MP says

Campaigners in October backing Kim Leadbeater’s bill, which she said was ‘potentially one of the biggest things we will do as members of parliament’. Photograph: Lucy North/PA

Fewer than 1,000 patients a year in England and Wales are expected to choose assisted dying should the law pass, the Labour MP Kim Leadbeater said, as she outlined her bill setting out the change.

But MPs opposed to the measure said they were deeply concerned by several components, including that the proposed legislation did not bar doctors from suggesting assisted dying as an option to patients.