Yesterday Parliament voted to reject a proposal to enable terminally ill people to end their lives at a time and place of their choosing.

I know, from the huge amount of emails in my inbox and letters I’ve received, that this is an issue about which people feel incredibly strongly. Over the last few weeks I have thought long and hard about the bill – and I wanted to write here to explain why I voted to support it.

The current situation isn’t working. Guidance from the director of public prosecutions (DPP) recommends against prosecuting people who act compassionately to assist loved ones in taking their own lives – but friends and relatives are still treated as suspects by the police. With medical professionals unable to help, assisted dying is – in the words of Keir Starmer, the former DPP who drew up the guidelines – an "amateur activity carried out by inexperienced individuals".

Only those wealthy enough to travel to a specialist clinic abroad can be helped by a doctor.

People like Bob Cole, who died at Dignitas in Switzerland last month after suffering from an aggressive and excruciating form of lung cancer, make clear the pain of having to leave the UK to end their life. As he said: it’s a tragedy that people can’t "die with dignity in [their] own country, in [their] own bed". People travelling to Dignitas also have to be healthy enough to do so – meaning they go to end their lives earlier than they might otherwise want to.

I know that many people do have very real concerns about this bill. I recently met with the actor and disability rights campaigner Liz Carr who made a powerful case against it.

She argued that the bill could inadvertently reinforce the discrimination disabled people already face, particularly in terms of access to the support and resources they need.

In an age of austerity, with services for people with disabilities being cut, there are concerns that those from whom the right to ‘dignity in life’ is already being withheld could be pressured into assisted dying.

It’s clear that we must do far more across society as a whole to end disadvantage and discrimination. The right to live a dignified life is just as important as dignity in death.

Indeed, the wider principle that everyone, not just those with a terminal illness, should have freedom to choose at the end of life, must go hand in hand with a firm commitment to the disabled and other rights for the duration of life.

Safeguards have been written into the bill – and I would have sought to strengthen them if it had progressed through Parliament.

The legislation would have only applied to those who are terminally ill, with less than six months to live.

Those meeting the criteria would voluntarily sign a declaration stating that they wish to end their lives – this would then have to be approved by two doctors and a high court judge.

A 14 day ‘cooling off’ period is built into the law – to give people as much of a chance as possible to think carefully about what they want to do. Counselling and guidance would also be made easily accessible to a person who indicates that they wish to end their life. Crucially, it is the person themselves who administers the drug supplied by a doctor.

The legislation is being proposed in a context where many people in Britain experience severe pain in their dying days. Many people receive excellent end of life care in hospices and at home, but much more can be done. Currently 92,000 people a year in England who would benefit from palliative care don’t have access to it. It is vital that the government invests in world class, round the clock, palliative care for everyone who needs it – thus allowing people to spend their last days in as little pain as possible.

Palliative care will, however, never be enough for some people– that’s why we need to offer people more control, as well as better care. This bill would have given someone suffering pain because of a terminal illness the freedom to decide when and where they can die; allowing them to say goodbye to loved ones properly and to exercise some control over how they die and when.

In Parliament yesterday I heard powerful arguments about the sanctity of life. I too believe that life is something to be valued and honoured. But sanctity of life surely includes quality of life and having the freedom to exercise as much control as possible, right up until the very end.

Ultimately, I would want the right to decide how and when to die myself – how can I deny that to others?

  • Caroline Lucas is MP for Brighton Pavilion