Image source, UK Parliament

Dr Andrew Murrison of the Conservatives says palliative care needs to be improved before they deal with the topic of assisted dying.

The MP adds that he won't be supporting the bill as he does not want to live in the kind of society where the elderly and vulnerable are coerced into "doing the right thing".

"Can we genuinely say that there will be a level playing field" for the vulnerable, he asks.

He says this needs to be a government bill in order to adequately tackle the issue, not a private members bill.

He says if the bill passes, it will put "substantial" pressure on those in the palliative care sector to facilitate assisted dying.

They can rationalise pros and cons, but he says most will go with what they feel in their guts - for him, he says it is "wrong".

"However well intentioned, it will lead in one direction, it will over time leave a grisly trail of unintended and unforeseen consequences," he ends.

Image source, House of Commons

Labour MP Jess Phillips now shares the story of her own mother, who died when age 61 from Leiomyosarcoma, a cancer that develops in smooth muscle cells.

The former safeguarding minister tells the Commons that her family had gathered at the time when her mother felt she was going to die.

But it wasn't until four weeks later when she actually passed away after Phillips' brother had already returned to France.

"She should have been able to choose to have her family with her," the MP says.

Phillips says her mother "had planned" what would happen after she died, but was not "gifted with the ability" to think about the assisted dying bill, and she "would have taken the choice" on the day she died.

Speaking to the point of coercion, she says: "Don't rest on the laurels that if we do nothing, people today won't be coerced to death. That will happen today."

"Doing nothing is not the same as acting."

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Pippa Heylings from the Liberal Democrats says "we need to get better at talking more openly about death and what dying well means".

She says the ongoing debate is about allowing due process to continue and confirms she continues to support the assisted dying bill.

Heylings references her constituent Jodie, who has a brain tumour.

The prospect of the disease taking over Jodie's brain "frightens her more than she can express", Heyling says, but knowing that the option is available would provide her with "enormous comfort and reassurance".

She goes on to say that "what we don't talk enough about is the status quo" that is often "unsafe and cruel" for terminally ill people, some of whom are "taking matters into their own hands".

"This bill will not make choice for anyone, it will simply allow terminally ill people to make choice for themselves safely, challenging the status quo and with loved ones around them if they so wish," Heylings concludes.

Rozina Sini
BBC Your Voice

Image source, Janice Cuer

As MPs continue to debate the assisted dying bill, readers have been sending in their thoughts.

Frank Short's wife Jenny died yesterday at a care home, after being diagnosed with cancer in summer.

Short, from Shepton Mallet, Somerset, says by the end of Jenny's life, his "extremely active" wife was "a shadow of her former self and looked like a living skeleton".

"This was not a dignified death," he says, and he believes if she had the choice, she would have "terminated her life when she was still her".

He explains they both caught a virus in February, but she never recovered.

She was diagnosed with terminal cancer at the end of July and went to a care home near Wales and was there for six weeks as she "gradually deteriorated".

"At the end she could not communicate, she could not move, she could not swallow, she had not eaten for weeks and had been unable to take fluids for several days."

"The assisted dying bill should pass," he says, praising the care home staff but saying his wife had "no control".

"This made my wife suffer."

Kate Whannel
Reporting from the House of Commons

Ashley Dalton is given a long hug by fellow Labour MP Jess Asato after finishing her speech.

She also receives supportive pats on the shoulder from others around her.

Many ministers - including Defence Secretary Wes Streeting - appear to have been in the House of Commons specifically to hear her speak, as they leave once she concludes.

Image source, House of Commons

Labour MP Ashley Dalton, speaking against the bill, says she was "overwhelmed" with grief, fear and anxiety while processing her stage four incurable breast cancer diagnosis.

She says prognoses are "notoriously difficult" to predict by medical professionals and says there is no provision for depression in the bill, adding individuals could be suicidal and have unmet mental health needs prior to developing a terminal illness.

The former health minister says today's debate is on the bill as it currently stands, not for sending it back to the House of Lords, and says the bill "does not protect the most vulnerable".

She says "until we can say that everyone that needs it has access to high quality, palliative care, then nobody has a choice".

She says their first responsibility is to "write a law that is safe, and workable", which she says this one is not.

She adds: "My days may be numbered, but that doesn't mean that I want this chamber to rush through bad law just so I might have a chance to see it or use it."

Kate Whannel
Reporting from the House of Commons

Rebecca Wilcox, Dame Esther Rantzen’s daughter, is sitting in the gallery watching on as MPs debate the bill her mother has long been calling for.

She is taking notes and occasionally shaking her head at some of the MPs’ comments.

Veteran broadcaster Rantzen, 86, is terminally ill with cancer and has been in favour of legalising assisted dying.

Image source, House of Commons

Conservative MP Kit Malthouse, who co-sponsored the bill, echoes criticism by Lauren Edwards about the House of Lords filibustering the assisted dying bill.

He says that "what's at stake today is our democracy" and that "if this bill falls today, one of the biggest losers will be the standing of this house".

Malthouse goes on to say a vote against the bill is a vote for the status quo of "misery and degradation and cruelty for so many".

He references countries around the world that have successfully operated assisted dying and says it should "not be beyond us" to design a system that would work.

Labour MP Dr Zubir Ahmed speaks of his experience as a medical professional, and says many of his patients have flickered between a "terminal experience" and a "life limiting illness".

He says he is convinced "now more than ever" that the current social and palliative care system is not ready to meet the demands of the bill.

The bill will "not serve" its aims of bringing choice and control for a quick death, he adds.

In the bill, one of the requirements is patients have been diagnosed with six months to live or less. Ahmed says this is "not a good enough marker for proscribing death", and he often can get this wrong himself as conditions change.

"The foundational elements of this bill will create the allure of choice and control but not the agency to pursue either," Ahmed says.

The Labour MP adds that doctors are not adequately trained to detect coercive behaviour in the context of the bill, and says the NHS is "not ready" in its current state for it.

Image source, House of Commons

Father of the House and Conservative MP Edward Leigh is speaking next - he says today's debate is about is "ensuring that the bill that we are debating today leaves the house unamended".

This means it will go to the House of Lords, which will be unable to halt its progress.

Leigh goes on to say that he is in favour of being assisted to die - but he says that currently happens all the time with the help of doctors and nurses in hospices.

He agrees with Prime Minister Andy Burnham's call for improvements to palliative care but does not agree with this bill as he believes "in time it will become an assisted suicide bill".

Leigh is in favour of being assisted to dying in the least amount of pain possible through palliative care.

"I urge you before you vote for this bill at 14:30 BST remember what sort of society you will be creating, not a society that loves life," he concludes.

• If you have been affected by the topic discussed in this page, support is available via the BBC Action Line

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In the Commons, Labour MP Claire Hazelgrove recounts the story of her mother Ruth who passed away last year from a rare blood cancer, having just turned 61.

Her mother had "access to good palliative care" but Hazelbrove will "never forget seeing her writhing and screaming in pain".

The MP says the current law means her mother could not tell her family what her plan was for the end of her life, and say a goodbye to her family.

She says her mother died alone, and family are unaware if she passed away 11 months ago today or tomorrow.

"My hope, and I know my mum's hope, is that her story can help us choose to end this harmful status quo and see terminally ill adults finally have true choice over their lives and their deaths," Hazelgrove says.

As MPs debate, we've been hearing from readers, who have shared their views on the assisted dying bill.

"Just get and do it! People who are against it don't need to use it and can expressly opt out with a simple declaration that nobody can override - not family or legals. But please don't force the 'suffer to the bitter end'", says Andrew in Gloucester.

Gary says: "It's so sad to see a few politicians vote against a bill that the majority of the public support, and is there to give people in incredible pain to choose when to go."

While TJD in Oxford says "there should be a referendum before a group of unrepresentative MPs make this decision".

"I am totally against this bill. As a Christian and disabled I believe it should be dropped. I wish they would make more efforts to fund palliative treatment," says Ikhlas.

Edwards' speech comes to an end - she is followed by Conservative MP Karen Bradley as MPs move on to the debate portion of the session.

Bradley says voices deserve to be heard and it's important to respect all views.

"So often it's the quiet voices that need to be heard," she says, referencing her previous time as the parliamentary under-secretary for preventing abuse.

She says further amendments to the bill need to be made.

Bradley says she worries that the bill could lead to people being coercively controlled into ending their life, before giving way to a number of MPs, including the bill's former sponsor Kim Leadbeater.

Leadbeater says the bill was amended to ensure professionals involved in assisted dying would receive training and that multiple checks for coercion would be carried out throughout the process of assisted dying.

Bradley later comes back in to say her "fear is for the person that doesn't want to make a fuss" and "the person that feels guilty about the care" they have received.

Harry Farley
Political correspondent

The number of MPs who tried to intervene - to question, to probe Lauren Edwards’ speech - shows just how hotly contested this issue is.

She has faced a number of questions, primarily from those opposed to the bill.

We're in for an emotionally charged debate over the next few hours, ahead of a vote that both sides expect to be close.

I have messaged one of those closely involved in organising supporters of the bill to ask how confident they feel about the result, now they can see how many of their side has turned up.

They reply with a shrug emoji.

Neither side are particularly confident at the moment.

Conservative MP Rebecca Smith says there are a number of palliative care consultants who are not prepared to take part in assisted dying.

She says all three palliative care doctors in her constituency of South West Devon, who work in Plymouth's Derriford Hospital, have said they will leave their profession if the bill is passed.

Edwards responds by saying the bill takes in a range of views in the palliative care community and allows them not to be involved in the process if they do not wish to be.

The Labour MP finishes her speech by quoting Elise Burns, a campaigner for assisted dying who passed away in July.

She says: "I would love peers to look me in the eye and tell me why me and my friends and anyone with terminal illness doesn't deserve to die with dignity and to have the choice to die without pain."

Some MPs are asking Edwards to give way, but she proceeds to deliver her speech to the House.

She says she will "be upset and disappointed" but accept the result if the House of Lords sends the bill back to the Commons with amendments and it is voted down.

But what she "cannot accept" is the "current situation".

Edwards says a small number of unelected peers filibustered legislation that was "supported by this chamber".

"This is not how our democracy is supposed to function," she says.

"We owe it to the people we represent to find a solution to this issue, one way or another, in this parliament."

Image source, UK Parliament

Edwards says today's bill, which she calls a "well designed, safe piece of legislation", has been subject to "hundreds of hours" of scrutiny and amendments made to strengthen its safeguards.

This "doesn't mean that it can't be straightened any further" and will benefit from additional scrutiny.

Democratic Unionist Party MP Gavin Robinson criticises the amount of amendments brought to the previous bill.

He says the bill is "unworkable", to which Edwards responds that she disagrees with the sentiment that amending a bill means it is unworkable.

She adds that she is asking MPs today to send the bill back to the House of Lords so that they can continue their work before it was interrupted.

Conservative MP Alex Shelbrooke says it would "massively strengthen" amendments to the bill to give "committee time to the whole house on the floor of the house".

He asks if she will lobby her own government to give "proper scrutiny" to everybody in this house for committee stage.

Edwards responds by saying the government has promised to remain neutral on the issue, before another Labour MP says 200 hours of consideration was given to this bill, which is "much more" than the standard bill.

"The Lords have had an enormous amount of time as well, so saying there hasn't been enough scrutiny is simply wrong," the MP says.

Edwards comes back in and says she is in no doubt that the bill that was sent to the Lords was "robust" and "expertly drafted" by the office of the parliamentary council, and developed with technical advice from civil servants.

Image source, House of Commons

Labour MP Anna Dixon says there "can be no choice" for individuals to utilise the assisted dying bill until palliative care in the country is "properly funded".

She says an estimated 170,000 people die in the country each year without access to palliative end of life care.

Lauren Edwards says these services "cannot address pain and suffering in all circumstances".

She says "we can and we must improve both palliative care and supported assisted dying".

"We must grasp that opportunity in front of us to create a holistic end of life care system."

Lauren Edwards gives way to fellow Labour MP Meg Hillier.

Hillier asks if Edwards will accept amendments to this bill, as she has brought an "exact same bill" to the Commons despite the bill's House of Lords' sponsor saying there needed to be 77 amendments to "make it safer".

Edwards responds by saying it is not the same bill, as it incorporates two amendments.

She says MPs have "had our conversation in this chamber about this bill" and also as a nation. She says she will be asking members to send the bill back to the Lords so they "can continue their important work of amending and scrutinising legislation".

Another MP raises concerns about peers in the Lords using delay tactics against private members bills, which Edwards agrees sets a "dangerous precedent".