Christians are being urged to keep on praying after MPs voted in the House of Commons to legalise assisted suicide in England and Wales.
MPs voted 330 in favour of Kim Leadbeater's Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, to 275 against. Those voting in favour included Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer. The bill will now be scrutinised in the coming months and subject to further votes before potentially becoming law.
The Church of England's lead bishop for healthcare, Dame Sarah Mullally, who had joined other faith leaders in warning against legalising assisted suicide, said that safeguarding the vulnerable "must now be our priority".
"I have been deeply moved watching proceedings unfold in the House of Commons today. My prayers are with all those who have been affected, who have shared and heard their stories, and facilitated this debate," she said.
"The Church of England believes that the compassionate response at the end of life lies in the provision of high quality palliative care services to all who need them.
"Today's vote still leaves the question of how this could be implemented in an overstretched and under-funded NHS, social care and legal system.
"In the wake of the decision MPs have made, safeguarding the most vulnerable must now be our priority in the Parliamentary process to come."
The Christian Institute said it was "deeply disappointed" by the vote and called the bill "dangerous and divisive".
"We are grateful to the many MPs who spoke and voted against it, and the fight is not over," he said.
"We know that the more people know about assisted suicide the less they like it. Those MPs who supported the principle of the bill but have concerns about its practical implications must now take the time to scrutinise it properly.
"They will find the promised safeguards are nothing more than a mirage. They will then have a further opportunity to vote against the bill before it clears the Commons. If it does go to the House of Lords, it is by no means guaranteed to pass there.
"We urge Christians to keep on praying and to be ready to approach their MPs again over the coming months. This is a life and death issue. Now is not the time to give up."
Christian MP Tim Farron was among those who spoke out against the bill during Friday's five-hour debate in the Commons.
He had urged MPs to vote against it to protect vulnerable people from coercion, and said that the priority should instead be greater investment in quality palliative care.
"I believe that freedom is essential, that the right of the individual underpin a decent society, but that my right must be held in check if they nullify your rights," he said.
"Since we know - and we really do know - that to legalise assisted dying is to permit people to die who will self-coerce, to permit people to die as a consequence of manipulative coercive control, to permit people to die outrageously not because of a real sovereign choice but because of a heartbreaking Hobson's choice due to inadequate palliative care, then I have no right to impose that ultimate and most appalling constraint on the freedom of the most vulnerable people in our society.
"So I urge all of us to stand in defence of those most vulnerable people, to defiantly defend their liberty, to make a renewed commitment to world-class palliative care and to human dignity, and to reject this bill."
Dr Gordon Macdonald, chief executive of Care Not Killing, shared in the disappointment over the outcome. He said that legalising assisted suicide was a "dangerous and ideological" move "that will make many elderly, terminally ill and disabled people feel like a burden and end their lives prematurely, exactly as we see in the US state of Oregon, the model for this draft bill".
Dr Macdonald concluded: "Our current laws protect vulnerable people and do not need changing, instead we need to focus our attention on how to ensure we provide the very best palliative care to those who need it."
Right to Life said it would be redoubling its efforts to stop the bill from becoming law.
Spokesperson for Right To Life UK, Catherine Robinson, said: "This is just the first stage of a long journey through the Commons and then the Lords for this dangerous assisted suicide Bill. We are now going to redouble our efforts to ensure we fight this bill at every stage and ensure that it is defeated to protect the most vulnerable.
"A very large number of MPs spoke out against this extreme proposal in Parliament today. They made it clear that this dangerous and extreme change to our laws would put the vulnerable at risk and see the ending of many lives through assisted suicide.
"Serious concerns remain about how this legislation would operate in practice, and the strong response from MPs across all parties shows these issues won't simply disappear.
"The Government must now provide a detailed impact assessment, outlining how this Bill would affect the NHS and our judicial system. MPs deserve full clarity on its real-world consequences before they are asked to vote again.
"This Bill can and must be defeated in Parliament. It still has a long way to go and presents an acute threat to vulnerable people, especially in the context of an overstretched healthcare system. Even members of the Prime Minister's own cabinet recognise this problem and that, within this environment, certain people will likely be particularly vulnerable to coercion."
