My plea to MPs: this is the final chance to save the assisted dying bill. Make your mark on history | Polly Toynbee

Any MP not voting for it on Friday will condemn thousands of us to die in agony.

The public is hugely in favour too, so do the right thing Once in a while, footsoldiers of the House of Commons, you are able to make history by leaving your own indelible footprints on the social fabric.

Eras with a Labour majority always leave a legacy of progressive freedoms – whether on abortion, capital punishment, divorce, gay rights, racial discrimination, gender equality or, last time, civil partnerships.

But tomorrow is your final chance to bequeath one of the last freedoms over our bodies: the freedom of the dying to choose when to depart them.

The terminally ill adults (end of life) bill, which goes for a second reading vote in the Commons tomorrow, gives anyone who is dying the right to request and be provided assistance with ending their lives.

If it fails to pass, that’s the end of it for the rest of this parliament: future parliaments may be less progressive.

So please, MPs: turn up and vote on Lauren Edwards’s bill , to ensure this Labour era leaves its own great social-reforming milestone.

Polly Toynbee is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...