The Welsh Parliament has voted against the principle of assisted dying in a historic vote.

Last week, Senedd members voted 26-19, with nine abstaining, against a non-binding motion calling on the Welsh Government to back the principle of assisted dying.

The Senedd rejected a similar motion back in December 2014.

Labour’s Julie Morgan MS, who submitted the motion, said it was important to debate the issue again in light of Kim Leadbeater’s assisted dying bill which had been introduced in the House of Commons.

Ms Morgan accepted powers over assisted dying are reserved to Westminster but pointed out the Senedd is responsible for health, so Wales would have to implement any new law.

She raised similar bills in Scotland, the Isle of Man and House of Lords, with Jersey’s assembly this year approving plans in principle to legalise assisted dying.

Ms Morgan said: “I believe we need to show more compassion to those people who are suffering intolerably from incurable illness and who have a settled wish to die.”

She said that every eight days one person goes to end-of-life centres in Switzerland, with the average cost from £10,000-£15,000.

“This means it is only an option for the wealthy,” she warned.

Brecon and Radnor MS James Evans told the Senedd he got into politics due to his grandmother who had dementia and suffered a stroke, leaving her incapacitated with no quality of life.

Mr Evans, who co-submitted the motion, said his grandfather was threatened with prosecution for manslaughter if he let her life end naturally.

Plaid Cymru MS Delyth Jewell said she understood the debate had been prompted by compassion and the desire to not see someone suffer. but said she could not support the move.

Saying it was the most emotional debate she had ever voted it, Ms Jewell said,""The terror I feel about this is not a trifling thing."

"Nearly everyone who approaches this debate will do so through the lens of the last moments of someone they love, someone they've seen suffer, someone whose pain they wanted desperately to lessen. How could anyone disagree with that?

"My contention though is we must also look at this those through the lens of people not surrounded by people they love. Those marginalised and pushed to the sidelines by society.I fear with this motion, my terror really, is not so much how it will begin but how it will end.