An impact review of the revived Terminally Ill Adults Bill has found that people with disabilities could feel “disadvantaged” by the legalisation of assisted dying.

The review, published at the end of August, highlighted how people from different protected characteristics, such as age, race, disability and religion, would be impacted were the bill to become law.

Roman Catholic peer Lord Alton said on X he was “disturbed” by its findings, which included a likelihood that people with disabilities could “feel as though they are a burden on their family and friends.”

“Disabled people are more likely to experience barriers in society and are twice as likely to be victims of domestic abuse,” the review acknowledged. “These factors may affect their decision about whether to seek an assisted death.”

Lord Alton said he felt “struck” by further findings of the report including that one assisted death in Oregan had taken “up to 123 hours”.

“[I feel] disturbed by modelling that assisted suicide would save as much as £30.24 million of State Pension payments that would no longer be required if people died 4 months earlier than they otherwise would have,” Lord Alton stated.

The bill will be reintroduced into the Commons by Labour MP Lauren Edwards on Friday 11th September. During the last parliamentary year, the bill was voted through by MPs. It failed after being blocked by the House of Lords, who ran out of time to debate its many amendments.

 “We owe it to all those terminally ill people and their families who are depending on this bill to ensure that parliament can come to a final decision on the question of choice at the end of life,” Edwards told The Guardian. “And I believe it undermines public trust in our democracy more widely if we cannot deliver on a measure that is supported by a very large majority of voters in all parts of the country.”