Fewer than half of the public want their MP to vote for legislation that would make assisted suicide legal in the UK, according to polling from assisted suicide lobby group, Dignity in Dying.
In a survey of 10,897 UK adults conducted earlier this year, only 43% of the public want their MP to vote in favour of assisted suicide legislation according to polling from the pro-assisted suicide lobby group, Dignity in Dying.
The results of this polling are consistent with recent polling from King’s College London, which found 45% of those surveyed wanted their MP to vote for an assisted suicide law.
The results are also consistent with polling published in The Telegraph earlier this year that showed that the public did not think “legalising assisted suicide” should be a priority, with it being ranked by the public as 22nd out of 23 policy priorities they thought the new Government should be focused on.
Support for MPs to vote to introduce assisted suicide low among Labour base
Despite having the backing of the Prime Minister, support for MPs to vote for a change in the law on assisted suicide remains comparatively lower among Labour’s traditional voting base.
Significantly, support for MPs to vote for a change in the law was low among Labour supporters, with only 44% of those intending to vote Labour in the 2024 election wanting their MP to vote for assisted suicide. Only those intending to vote for the Liberal Democrats had lower support for their MP to vote for assisted suicide (42%).
Among those who wished their MP to vote for a change in the law, support was lowest among the 18-34 age bracket with only 36% wanting their MP to vote for assisted suicide.
Support for MPs to vote in favour of assisted suicide legislation was also lowest in London of all the regions in the UK, with only 34% of those surveyed wanting their MP to vote for a change in the law.
Fewer people who voted ‘remain’ in the EU referendum in 2016 wanted their MP to vote for assisted suicide legislation (45%), than those who voted ‘leave’ the EU (49%).
Among people of faith, support for MPs to vote for assisted suicide legislation was lowest among Muslims surveyed, with only 19% in favour.
This result comes after a survey of healthcare workers, undertaken by the British Islamic Medical Association, showed that 88% disagreed that it should be legal for doctors to prescribe life-ending medication.
When those who wanted their MP to vote for a change in the law on assisted suicide are broken down by ethnicity, support is lowest among black and Asian voters, with only 24% in favour.
Support for their MP to vote for a change in the law on assisted suicide was lower among private renters (37% supported) compared to people who owned their house outright (46% supported) or who owned their house with a mortgage or loan (48% supported).
Labour Cabinet deeply divided on assisted suicide
With Kim Leadbeater MP’s assisted suicide Bill set to be tabled this Wednesday 16 October, it has been found that the Labour cabinet is deeply divided on assisted suicide with fewer than half indicating they support making assisted suicide legal despite the Prime Minister’s vocal support for a change in the law, according to their previous voting records and public statements.
Based on previous votes for assisted suicide in 2015 and 1997, as well as recent public comments on the issue, fewer than half of the MPs within the Labour cabinet appear to support assisted suicide becoming legal and would be likely to vote for a change in the law next month.
Ten members of the cabinet are likely to vote against a change in the law based on their previous votes and public statements, while the views of two members of the cabinet remain entirely unknown having no known statements on the matter nor were they elected Members of Parliament for the last assisted suicide vote in the House of Commons in 2015.
Despite assurances from Leadbeater that making assisted suicide legal will not lead to a ‘slippery slope’ whereby a law with supposedly restrictive criteria for access to assisted suicide is then amended at a later date or later interpreted in a way that allows wider access to assisted suicide, dozens of Labour MPs are backing proposals to widen the scope of the Bill to apply to those who are not terminally ill.
According to the Telegraph, a group of 54 cross-party MPs are believed to be campaigning for Leadbeater’s assisted suicide Bill to apply not only to people who are terminally ill, but also to those who are “incurably suffering”. These include “as many as 38 Labour” MPs, 13 of whom are in Government positions.
Widening of assisted dying law in Oregon and Canada
Leadbeater’s claim that the slippery slope isn’t real is undermined, not only by MPs from her own party already attempting to widen the scope of her Bill that has not even been released yet, but also by evidence from a number of jurisdictions with laws that originally had supposedly restrictive criteria for access to assisted suicide, but have subsequently widened the criteria under which assisted suicide and/or euthanasia can happen.
Assisted suicide campaigners, Dignity in Dying, cite Oregon as a model for rolling out legislation in the UK, claiming that it provides for assisted suicide under strict criteria and with several safeguards.
A review of the assisted suicide data from Oregon over the last 25 years, published by leading academics in the journal BMJ Supportive & Palliative Care, suggests that since the law was introduced in Oregon, the law has subsequently been interpreted to allow for wider access to assisted suicide.
The academics found that “[s]ince 2010, patients with a range of non-cancer diagnoses have received [physician assisted suicide] including non-terminal illnesses such arthritis, arteritis, complications from a fall, hernia, sclerosis, ‘stenosis’ and anorexia nervosa”.
Residency requirements for assisted suicide in the state of Oregon were removed in 2022, leading to concerns about ‘suicide tourism’.
Canada’s legislation that allows assisted suicide and euthanasia previously had a requirement that the natural death of those applying for euthanasia or assisted suicide be “reasonably foreseeable”. However, in 2021, the Canadian Parliament repealed this requirement. This took place only five years after the original legislation allowing euthanasia and assisted suicide was passed in 2016. Legislation was introduced in February 2024 so that euthanasia and assisted suicide would become legal on the grounds of mental health alone from March 2027.
Spokesperson for Right To Life UK, Catherine Robinson, said “The results of this survey from the assisted suicide lobby group, Dignity in Dying, indicate that the Prime Minister is at odds with his own Party’s voter base on assisted suicide. The push for assisted suicide is not at the forefront of Labour voters’ concerns”.
“This legislation, which only a minority of the electorate want their MP to support and which MPs are already seeking to widen, is a disaster in waiting. The risk of coercion and pressure, always present when assisted suicide is legal, is heightened at a time when the NHS is under such strain”.
“MPs must vote against this ill-thought-through, rushed and dangerous Bill”.
