MSPs backed the bill by 70 votes to 56 in a free vote, after months of cross-party pre-legislative scrutiny. The result comes just days before MPs at Westminster are due to vote on a similar proposal covering England and Wales.

Introducing the bill, Scottish Liberal Democrat MSP Liam McArthur said too many dying people were forced to endure “horrendous choices and bad deaths”, including traumatic suicides or unnecessary suffering, because they had no legal option of assisted dying.

In a charged opening speech, Mr McArthur warned that blocking the bill at this early stage would deny terminally ill people a choice and deprive Holyrood of the opportunity to pass what he described as a measured and compassionate law. He noted that more than 300 million people around the world live in jurisdictions where assisted dying is legal and functioning, while the Isle of Man had recently passed similar legislation and Jersey was close to doing so.

Closing the debate, he called on MSPs to “get on with the job of trying to find an honourable, fair and equitable solution to this most wicked of problems”.

Earlier in the day, around 60 disability rights campaigners gathered outside Holyrood to oppose the bill, where the actor Liz Carr addressed the crowd and urged MSPs to reject the proposal. Supporters of the bill had held a rally at the same location earlier on Tuesday.

Several senior party figures had already stated their opposition, including the former first minister Nicola Sturgeon, the current first minister, John Swinney, and Scottish Labour’s leader and deputy, Anas Sarwar and Jackie Baillie.

However, the bill received support from Scottish Conservative leader Russell Findlay and his deputy Rachael Hamilton, as well as the Scottish Green co-leaders Patrick Harvie and Lorna Slater.

Pam Duncan-Glancy, Scottish Labour’s education spokesperson and Holyrood’s first full-time wheelchair user, spoke emotionally as she urged colleagues to reject the legislation. “Rather than legislating to assist to die, let us resolve to legislate to assist people to live,” she said.

“For me it comes down to this: how can it be possible for people to make a free and equal choice to allow a system that oppresses them so much to also potentially assist them to take their own lives?”

Rona Mackay, an SNP MSP, said this bill was not “a leap into the unknown”.

“It is a cautious, evidence-based step forward. Voluntary assisted dying is founded on international best practice. [The] framework it proposes is safe, compassionate and practical,” she said.

Humanist Society Scotland CEO Fraser Sutherland commented: “This is a victory for everyone who wants to see an end to needless pain and suffering for the terminally ill. It’s a victory for those who believe in human rights and bodily autonomy at every stage of life.

“And, most important of all, if a law passes, which is not yet certain, it will bring peace and comfort to countless people in Scotland at the end of their lives, and to the people who care about them.”