A symbolic motion in favour of legalising assisted suicide has been defeated in a vote in the Welsh Assembly. Twelve Assembly Members (AMs) voted in favour, while 21 voted against and 20 abstained.

While the Welsh assembly does not have the power to change the legislation on assisted suicide, the motion, tabled by Plaid Cymru AM Simon Thomas, was intended to lend support to Lord Falconer’s Assisted Dying Bill, currently being debated in the British Parliament.

Wales Online reports that Thomas’s proposal was strongly opposed by Conservative AM William Graham, who said that patients would be “encouraged” to end their lives.

“A large number of people who are terminally ill have found richness and purpose in their lives, despite pain and hardship,” he said.

Graham argued that: “Good palliative care restores quality of life without needing to erase the life itself.”

Warning of a “real threat to autonomy”, he said: “Killing people is cheaper than providing palliative or long-term care, and health care resources will always be constrained.”

“This must mean that health care teams and society in general will be under pressure to encourage patients to choose suicide.”

A survey by the Royal College of Physicians this year found that most doctors in Britain are still against legalising assisted suicide.

Close to two thirds (62.5 per cent) of members of the College agreed that a change in the law is unnecessary, while 37.5 per cent disagreed.

When asked what the RCP’s position on assisted suicide should be, fewer than one in four said ‘in favour’ and 44 per cent said ‘opposed’.

And 58.4 per cent said they would not be prepared to actively participate in assisting a suicide, compared to 59.4 per cent who had the same view in 2006.