Dozens of Labour MPs are pushing for more people to be eligible for assisted dying, The Telegraph understands.

Kim Leadbeater, the Labour MP, will table legislation on Oct 16 to legalise assisted dying after her Private Member’s Bill was selected for debate. Her decision to propose the law change means there could be a free vote by MPs before Christmas.

The bill is expected to give terminally ill adults the right to choose to shorten their lives if they wish.

As many as 38 Labour politicians, including 13 who hold government roles, are understood to back proposals for the bill to go further and to apply not just to the terminally ill, but more broadly to those “incurably suffering”.

They are among a cross-party group of 54 MPs calling for the scope of the bill to be widened, according to Humanists UK, which has long called for a change in the law. It is likely to raise fears over introducing ambiguity into who would be eligible for state-sanctioned euthanasia.

A key fear of those who oppose assisted dying is that too loose a definition of who qualifies could lead to people suffering from depression and other non-terminal health issues being allowed to take their own lives.

Backers of a change in the law say that it is inhumane to keep the terminally ill alive if they are experiencing unbearable suffering.

A change would also end the practice of terminally ill people travelling abroad to end their lives, often separated from their friends and families.

It will be the first time the topic has been debated in the House of Commons since 2015, when an assisted dying bill was defeated.

While polling shows that a majority of the public backs legalising support for terminally ill people who wish to end their lives, the issue could cause serious divisions across parties.

Ahead of the bill’s first reading, Ms Leadbeater must decide on its title, which will determine the breadth of the debate. If the bill is defined narrowly as assisted dying for the terminally ill, it would make it difficult for MPs to debate the merits of whether the legislation should be broadened in scope.

But if the bill is given a more open-ended title, it means MPs could introduce amendments, including on whether those with incurable illnesses should be eligible for legalised assisted dying as well as the terminally ill.

Ms Leadbeater said she intended for the bill to be focussed on legalising assisted dying for those who were terminally ill but added that it was “important that the debate is broad and robust and very open”.

“I haven’t decided the title of the bill yet,” she said. “I will meet and speak to people with different views. I am open-minded and the important thing is that the debate needs to be broad. It’s always really important to get back to the point that it’s about choice.”

Several Labour MPs are expected to seek meetings with Ms Leadbeater in the coming days to discuss the wording of the bill.

Suffering ‘not limited to terminal illnesses’

Lizzi Collinge, the Labour MP for Morecambe and Lunesdale, said she believed assisted dying should be legalised for those with incurable illness and had already written to Ms Leadbeater about the issue.

“It is an important position because ultimately this is about human suffering,” she said. “Unfortunately suffering is not limited to those who have a terminal illness. Some people who do not have a prognosis of six months or less will be suffering in  a way that no matter what you do, no matter the care you receive, their suffering becomes intolerable. That, I think, needs to be reflected in the law.”

Nathan Stilwell, Humanists UK’s lead campaigner on assisted dying, said he was “thrilled to see so much support in this new Parliament for assisted dying”.

He added: “Humanists UK has consistently campaigned for over a century for a compassionate assisted dying law that includes the incurably suffering and terminally ill.

“We’ve been continuously speaking to MPs and have identified at least 50 who would want to see an assisted dying law that allows people who aren’t necessarily dying, but are incurably suffering from conditions like multiple sclerosis and locked-in syndrome the right to choose. We suspect that when MPs begin to read the proposed changes, that number will be higher.”