2024 and Hails From Melbourne, Australia, Told Politico in an Interview That She Would Want the Choice to End Her Life Surrounded by Family

Her support is shaped in part by laws in Victoria, where she still has family. In 2017, Victoria became the first Australian state to legalize assisted dying for people expected to die within six months, or 12 months for those with neurodegenerative diseases, who face unacceptable suffering. Edwards argues her own legislation is "preferable and has stronger safeguards" than the Australian model — unbearable suffering is not a criterion for eligibility in her bill.

She found it helpful to see how assisted dying has worked in practice the last time British MPs tackled the issue. MPs passed fellow Labour backbencher Kim Leadbeater's Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill last year by 314 votes to 291, but it failed to become law after delays in the House of Lords. Now Edwards is reintroducing the bill, meaning the House of Commons will next month face a divisive vote on whether to legalize assisted dying for terminally ill adults judged as having fewer than six months left to live.

Edwards said conversations with her father about Australia reassured her compared to "more extreme examples" like Canada, where a terminal condition is not required but instead an irreversible "advanced state of decline" and "unbearable physical or mental suffering. Next year, Canadian eligibility is set to expand to include individuals whose sole underlying medical condition is a mental illness, though this change has been repeatedly delayed. U.K. law punishes the offense with up to 14 years in prison.

"[The] status quo is not neutral. It is not benign, Edwards argues. "It is a situation where, if we don't make this legislative change, unfortunately, we will be allowing that pain, fear and isolation.

In October 2024, an independent review of assisted dying in Victoria by the state Department of Health's Centre for Evaluation and Research Evidence found the system safe and "operating as intended" with "no reports of ineligible individuals" accessing substances to end their lives. However, access varies across the state, and just "a few practitioners deliver the majority of care. Victoria has been urged to press the central Australian government for more funding.

In the U.K., main political parties have agreed the decision should be a matter for parliament. MPs were not whipped on Leadbeater's bill, and the issue is treated as a matter of conscience. There was tacit endorsement from the top of Keir Starmer's government — Starmer promised broadcaster Esther Rantzen, who has stage four lung cancer, that he'd make time for a vote.

Leadbeater's bill also received technical support from civil servants in the Department for Health and Social Care and the Ministry of Justice. New Prime Minister Andy Burnham appears to have other ideas. Burnham was not an MP when assisted dying passed the Commons last year and abstained in a 2015 vote during a previous stint in parliament. Edwards is adamant the groundbreaking social change can succeed this time around.