Pro-assisted suicide adverts around Westminster station have been covered with Samaritans suicide prevention posters just hours after they were first discovered.
With Kim Leadbeater’s Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill being voted on at the end of this week (Friday 29 November), the pro-assisted suicide group, Dignity in Dying, has said it wants to promote its message “from Westminster to each corner of Britain”.
As part of this campaign, the group has covered a whole corridor of Westminster station just outside Parliament with their campaign messaging. According to reports, the corridor has since been labelled the “Westminster Death Tunnel”.
Now, however, seemingly only hours after the presence of this campaign was first noticed, the billboards have been covered with posters advertising the suicide prevention charity, Samaritans. The posters read “Whatever you’re facing We’re here to listen”, alongside its phone number, 116 123.
Political commentator Fleur Elizabeth reacted to the posters saying “Well that didn’t take long… On my way home and the assisted suicide propaganda has been covered up with suicide prevention posters. Love it!”.
Assistant Professor of International Relations and International Law at Leiden University and critic of the Leadbeater Bill, Yuan Yi Zhu, said “Thank you to whomever did this!”
Even before the Samaritans posters had been discovered, the pro-assisted suicide advertising had come under intense criticism.
Dr Cajetan Skowronski, a geriatric and palliative care doctor opposed to the assisted suicide Bill, said “It is irresponsible and dangerous of TfL to be promoting suicide on the Tube where in the last year there were 68 suicides and suicide attempts”.
“Let’s stop glorifying suicide and start helping those who feel it is their only option to know their life matters”.
Transport for London said its staff prevented more than 2,200 attempted suicides between 2017 and 2021.
“Will Dignity in Dying advertise at Beachy Head next?” Dr Skowronski added on X, referencing one of the most common suicide spots in the world in Sussex.
Professor Mark Taubert, a palliative medicine consultant to the NHS and professor of medicine at Cardiff University, commented that “in a place where suicides are not uncommon, the Tube, there are now hundreds of adverts for assisted suicide”.
At the same time, Louis Appleby, the Government’s adviser on suicide prevention and mental health, said the campaign was “seriously ill-advised”, adding it was “careless of the possible risk to people struggling with their mental health”.
Spokesperson for Right To Life UK, Catherine Robinson, said “It is clearly grossly inappropriate for this pro-assisted suicide group to be promoting its assisted suicide campaign, especially in a location in which, tragically, suicide is so common. It is encouraging though that this pro-assisted suicide messaging has been countered with suicide prevention messaging with a far more positive response: support”.
“Those experiencing thoughts of suicide should always be offered an alternative, and not, as the Leadbeater Bill proposes, offered assistance in suicide”.
