MPs voted down the assisted dying Bill by a majority of just 16 following a more than four-hour Commons debate today.

This ends Labour MP Lauren Edwards’s attempt to return the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill originally sponsored by Kim Leadbeater to Parliament after it ran out of time in the last parliamentary session. Ms Edwards said it could be a decade before the issue is revisited.

The draft legislation had proposed allowing adults in England and Wales, with fewer than six months to live, to apply for an assisted death subject to the approval of two doctors and an “expert panel.”

Campaigners warned it contained inadequate safeguards and that it could result in some of society’s most vulnerable being at risk of coercion and choosing an assisted death because they feel like a burden.

Medical colleges, including the Royal College of Psychiatrists (RCPsych), had also raised “serious concerns” about the Bill, saying there were “too many unanswered questions about the safeguarding of people with mental illness.”

Care Not Killing chief executive Gordon Macdonald said: “This was a decisive vote by MPs, who have over the last 24 months seen through the pernicious pretence that this draft legislation was safe and wouldn’t put pressure on vulnerable people to end their lives prematurely.

“We heard from numerous MPs, echoing comments made by the Prime Minister, that fixing the palliative and social care systems should be the priority for the government, rather than pressing ahead with this dangerous and ideological piece of legislation.

“Our hope is that MPs now focus on repairing palliative care in the UK and securing the necessary funding to make sure that no matter what part of the country you live in, you can access the best possible care available and are treated with dignity and respect.

“As one of many doctors have said, we need much more care, not killing.”

Prime Minister Andy Burnham had said that he would not vote on the Bill so as not to “unduly influence the debate.”

The government was neutral on the Bill and MPs voted according to their consciences rather than along party lines.

Disabled People Against Cuts, which organised a vigil outside Parliament against the Bill joined by Labour MP Richard Burgon, expressed thanks to all MPs who voted against.