The upper house of Britain's parliament blocked a controversial law on Friday to allow doctors to help terminally ill patients end their lives. The assisted dying bill, modelled on a law on the books in the US state of Oregon, would let doctors prescribe lethal drugs to patients who are suffering unbearably and have less than six months to live. The patients themselves would have to administer the drugs. After an emotional seven-hour debate, members of the unelected House of Lords voted to postpone action on the measure, effectively rejecting it. The law was proposed by an individual lawmaker, human rights lawyer Lord Joel Joffe, and not by the British government, which says it is neutral on the issue. "We cannot sit back and complacently accept that terminally ill patients who are suffering unbearably should just continue to suffer for the good of society as a whole," Joffe said. Supporters say terminally ill people should have the right to end their suffering, while opponents, including religious leaders, say life is sacrosanct and the law could be abused. Lord Alexander Carlile, a member of the opposition Liberal Democrats, called the measure "morally indefensible" and an "ethical nightmare".