Campaigners supporting the bill, including broadcaster Dame Esther Rantzen, argue terminally ill people should get a choice over how they die to avoid unnecessary suffering.
Leadbeater said the current law in the UK was “not fit for purpose” and was “leading to people having horrible deaths, taking their own lives, having to go to other countries if they can afford it”.
She told the BBC she hoped MPs would be reassured by the bill’s safeguards, adding: “What I would say to colleagues is, if you vote against the bill, or even if you abstain, you’re saying that the status quo is OK and it’s not OK.”
Elise Burns, from Kent, is terminally ill with breast cancer and wants the option of an assisted death.
“I’m not scared to die but I am scared of a bad death – a long, drawn out, brutal, horrific death. That terrifies me,” she told the BBC.
“But also I’m concerned for my family and friends. I don’t want them to see me go through that.”
However, Nik Ward, who lives in Surrey and has motor neurone disease, is against changing the law.
He told the BBC he might have sought help to die if it had been an option after he was diagnosed, but now says life is precious and he is opposed to assisted dying.
“It redefines the norms of our society, in a way that is, I think, terribly dangerous,” he said.
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