An assisted suicide Bill will be introduced in the House of Commons this month making it very likely that MPs will have a vote on assisted suicide before Christmas.
Labour MP Kim Leadbeater, who came first in the Private Members’ Bill ballot, announced yesterday that she would be introducing an assisted suicide Bill could be voted on before Christmas.
Though details of the Bill have not yet been released reports suggest it is likely to be similar to Lord Falconer’s assisted suicide Bill in the House of Lords, which is his seventh attempt to change the law on assisted suicide.
The announcement comes after it was reported that the Prime Minister was behind the Government approaching Labour MPs high up in the Private Members’ Bill ballot encouraging them to take forward a Bill on assisted suicide.
Labour Cabinet deeply divided on assisted suicide
Before the announcement of Leadbeater’s assisted suicide Bill, Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood said “I don’t intend to support it”.
“I know some MPs who support this issue think, ‘For God’s sake, we’re not a nation of granny killers, what’s wrong with you’… [But] once you cross that line, you’ve crossed it forever. If it becomes the norm that at a certain age or with certain diseases, you are now a bit of a burden… that’s a really dangerous position”.
At the beginning of September, Health Secretary Wes Streeting said
“Candidly, when I think about this question of being a burden, I do not think that palliative care, end-of-life care in this country is in a condition yet where we are giving people the freedom to choose, without being coerced by the lack of support available”.
“I am not sure as a country we have the right end-of-life care available to enable a real choice on assisted dying”, he added.
Major gap in the provision of palliative care services in the United Kingdom
The introduction of the Bill comes as many elderly people go into winter with their Winter Fuel Payment cut by the Government, as palliative care services are in crisis with 100,000 people dying each year needing palliative care but not receiving it, and a wider healthcare system also in a state of crisis, with Labour’s own Health Secretary describing the NHS as “broken”.
According to Marie Curie’s Better End of Life Report 2024 “It is estimated that each year across the UK, 100,000 people die needing palliative care but not receiving it. People with lower socio-economic position, non-cancer diagnoses, and from ethnic minority groups are less likely to access high-quality palliative care”.
According to Hospice UK, the UK hospice sector is facing a collective estimated deficit of £77 million in the financial year 2023-24.
Demand for palliative care is set to increase. In 20 years’ time, there are expected to be 100,000 more people dying each year in the United Kingdom. Analysis by Marie Curie shows that by 2048, the number of people with palliative care needs in the UK will climb by more than 147,000 to over 730,000. Matthew Reed, chief executive of Marie Curie said the findings from the survey show that “care for dying people is in crisis”.
A YouGov poll commissioned by King’s College London shows that 65% of the general population are worried about access to palliative and end-of-life care and 41% think there is too little NHS resource allocated to palliative care.
People with disabilities and doctors opposed to assisted suicide
No major disability advocate groups in the UK – including Disability Rights UK, Scope and Not Dead Yet – support a change in the law to introduce assisted suicide or euthanasia.
Polling commissioned by Scope showed that the majority of people with disabilities (64%) – including nearly three-quarters (72%) of young disabled people – are concerned about moves to legalise assisted suicide. Nearly two-thirds (62%) of people with disabilities who were concerned about a change in the law were worried that pressure would be put on disabled people to end their lives prematurely.
No doctors’ groups in the UK support changing the law to introduce assisted suicide or euthanasia, including the British Medical Association, the Royal College of General Practitioners, the Royal College of Physicians, the British Geriatric Society, and the Association for Palliative Medicine.
In particular, there is strong opposition to introducing assisted suicide from doctors who specialise in working with people with incurable conditions at the end of their life. A survey of palliative care doctors who are members of the Association for Palliative Medicine found that 82% oppose the introduction of assisted suicide. The results of the Association for Palliative Medicine survey have been mirrored in a more recent survey of doctors by the British Medical Association, which found that 83% of palliative care doctors oppose a change in the law to introduce assisted suicide, while only 6% supported such a change.
Palliative care doctors have specialist knowledge and experience of the care that can be provided to people to alleviate suffering at the end of their lives and the results of these surveys show that it is clear to these doctors that specialist care is the solution, not ending their patients’ lives through assisted suicide.
Polling reveals public concern about pressure to end life
A recent landmark poll found widespread public scepticism about whether assisted suicide could be introduced safely, with more people believing there are too many complicating factors to make it a practical and safe option to implement in Britain than those who believed it could be introduced safely.
Polling from ComRes found that 51% of the general population, when asked if they “would be concerned that some people would feel pressurised into accepting help to take their own life so as not to be a burden on others if assisted suicide were legal”, said yes. Only 25% disagreed.
Polling of Members of Parliament, conducted by YouGov, showed that only 35% of MPs supported a law change to allow “doctors to assist in the suicide of someone suffering from a terminal illness”.
Wish to die linked with depression and loneliness
Researchers from Trinity College Dublin found that the “wish to die” among older people is often “transient” and linked with depression and feelings of loneliness.
The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing (TILDA), found that almost three quarters of people over 50 who had previously expressed a wish to die no longer had that desire two years later.
Furthermore, TILDA found that 60% of those who reported a wish to die also had “clinically significant” depressive symptoms while half had been diagnosed with depression.
The study also found high rates of loneliness among those who had a wish to die (WTD).
“Almost three-quarters of participants reporting WTD also reported loneliness at least some of the time, while almost one fifth with WTD reported that they were lonely all the time. Almost one-third of participants who felt lonely all the time also endorsed WTD”.
Spokesperson for Right To Life UK, Catherine Robinson, said “Making assisted suicide legal poses an acute threat to vulnerable people, especially in the context of a struggling healthcare system. Members of the Prime Minister’s own cabinet recognise this problem and that, within this setting, certain people will likely be particularly vulnerable to coercion”.
“With an NHS described by the sitting Health Secretary as ‘broken’, and the 100,000 people who need palliative care dying each year without receiving it, this assisted suicide legislation is a disaster in waiting”.
“Every suicide is a tragedy and this remains the case for those suffering at the end of their life. The situation for people who may already have a serious illness is not helped by a failing health care system and a cold home. In such cases, vulnerable people may feel pressured to end their lives prematurely. This would be an extremely poor indictment of our healthcare system and society as a whole”.
“The UK needs properly funded high-quality palliative care for those at the end of their life, not assisted suicide”.
