Bache, I. orcid.org/0000-0002-2149-210X (2025) How (and when) does party matter? Explaining MPs’ positions on assisted dying/assisted suicide. Parliamentary Affairs. gsaf002. ISSN 0031-2290
Abstract
While the legalisation of assisted dying/assisted suicide (AD/AS)1 has enjoyed sustained public support for several decades, Parliament has repeatedly voted decisively against legalisation. This article explores this parliamentary deviation from citizens’ preferences by explaining what shapes MPs’ positions on this free vote issue and, in particular, how (and when) party matters in shaping these positions. It considers both the last Commons vote in 2015 and developments up to July 2024,2 thus avoiding a snapshot analysis of a single moment in time. It finds that while party mattered in the 2015 vote, it was one of many factors that mattered, and was not obviously the most important. However, developments since 2015 suggest that party is likely to play a greater role in the next vote, which is expected in the current parliamentary term.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © The Author(s) 2025. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. For commercial re-use, please contact reprints@oup.com for reprints and translation rights for reprints. |
Keywords: | assisted dying; assisted suicide; conscience issues; euthanasia; free voting; morality policies |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Social Sciences (Sheffield) > Department of Politics and International Relations (Sheffield) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 19 Mar 2025 10:44 |
Last Modified: | 19 Mar 2025 10:44 |
Status: | Published online |
Publisher: | Oxford University Press (OUP) |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1093/pa/gsaf002 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:224624 |