Campaigners supporting the bill, including broadcaster Dame Esther Rantzen, argue terminally ill people should get a choice over how they die to avoid unnecessary suffering.
Leadbeater said the current law in the UK was “not fit for purpose” and was “leading to people having horrible deaths, taking their own lives, having to go to other countries if they can afford it”.
She told the she hoped MPs would be reassured by the bill’s safeguards, adding: “What I would say to colleagues is, if you vote against the bill, or even if you abstain, you’re saying that the status quo is okay and it’s not okay.”
Groups who oppose changing the law say vulnerable people could feel under pressure to end their lives for fear of being a burden on others and that the focus should be on improving palliative care.
Dr Gordon Macdonald, chief executive of Care Not Killing, said: “The safest law is the one we currently have.”
“This bill is being rushed with indecent haste and ignores the deep-seated problems in the UK’s broken and patchy palliative care system,” he added.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting, who has said he will vote against the bill, is among those who has raised concerns, saying end-of-life care is currently not good enough to give people a real choice.
In response to such fears, Leadbeater said: “This is not about either improving palliative care or giving people the choice at the end of life that I believe they deserve.
“We have to do both, and they have to run in parallel.”
The MP for Spen Valley said there would be “checks against coercion or pressure” at every stage, as well as a code of practice and “robust training” for doctors involved.
She added that if the bill did become law, there would also be a “period of implementation”, which would most likely be up to two years.
