British lawmakers have given their initial approval Friday to a bill to help terminally ill adults end their lives in England and Wales. After an impassioned and debate, members of Parliament approved the so-called assisted dying bill by a vote of 330 to 275.

The vote signals lawmakers’ approval in principle for the bill and sends it on to further scrutiny in Parliament. Similar legislation failed to pass that important first test in 2015. It was reported that the vote came hours after debate – which was emotional at times – about various topics such as grief, the law, faith, crime and money.

Hundreds of people on both sides of the issue gathered outside Parliament to hear the upcoming verdict. According to the Associated Press, Parliament heard speeches from supporters which included heart-wrenching stories about constituents and family members who suffered in the final months of their lives and dying people who committed suicide in secret because it is currently a crime for anyone to assist.

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Those opposed to the bill also got a chance to speak about the danger that vulnerable, elderly and disabled people could be coerced into opting for assisted dying to save money or relieve the burden on family members. Others called for the improvement of palliative care to ease suffering as an alternative.

The passage comes after an assisted suicide capsule was discovered in a forest in Switzerland. The pods were reportedly placed in the country as a way for individuals to die by suicide if they choose.

Previous reports indicate that the pod works by sucking the oxygen out of the chamber and replacing it with nitrogen, much like the highly controversial nitrogen hypoxia executions that were just introduced to the United States. The capsules made headlines when a 64-year-old woman was found dead inside one of them in October.

The anonymous American woman reportedly went to the forest and entered the pod, then activated it by pushing a button inside, dying of hypoxia. However, investigators now aren’t so sure that she died from being in the pod itself or if she was killed through other means.

According to a forensics expert, the woman was reportedly found with strangulation marks on her neck, when they checked her body shortly after she was found dead. But, according to Dutch media, which obtained footage of the death, the marks might be the result of a terminal condition the woman had been suffering from for about two years called osteomyelitis, a disease that occurs when bacteria or fungi infect bone marrow.

The Mayo Clinic reported Osteomyelitis can usually travel through the bloodstream or spread from nearby tissue. According to the site, smokers and people with chronic health conditions, such as diabetes or kidney failure, are more at risk of developing osteomyelitis. People who have diabetes are also likely to develop osteomyelitis in their feet if they have foot ulcers.

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