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James Cleverly launches assisted suicide amendment to protect against death due to feeling like a burden

The former Home Secretary has introduced an amendment to Kim Leadbeater’s assisted suicide Bill to prevent people eligible under the Bill from ending their lives because they feel they are a burden and have a “duty to die”.

James Cleverly MP intends to amend the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill so that the state does not assist in the suicide of those who end their lives because they feel like a burden. He said “The right to die must not become the duty to die. The state should not assist someone to end their life if they do so because they feel they are a burden”.

“My amendment will make it clear that feeling like a burden is not a reason for assisted dying and that doctors and judges should safeguard against that risk”.

Cleverly drew attention to Canada, Oregon, Washington and Western Australia, each of which records data on the percentage of those who ended their lives and cited feeling like a burden as a reason for doing so. For those who have ended their lives in the most recent year for which data is available, 45.3% cited being a burden in Canada, 43.3% did so in Oregon, 59% in Washington and 35.2% did so in Western Australia.

In these jurisdictions, the percentage of those ending their lives by assisted suicide or euthanasia and who cite feeling like a burden among their reasons for doing so has increased over time. In Oregon, it increased from 13% in 1998 to 43% today; in Washington, from 23% in 2009 to 59% today; in Canada, from 34% in 2019 to 45.3% today. Western Australia has only collected statistics for two years.

Cleverly’s amendment adds as a condition of eligibility that the person is only eligible for assisted dying if they are seeking it for their own sake rather than for the benefit of others. This means that someone who is doing it because they do not want to be a burden on others will not be eligible. Assuming that this safeguard can be effectively applied, this will protect those who might feel internal self-pressure to end their life early.

Feelings of being a burden are widespread

Feelings of being a burden appear to be very common among those who believe they are near the end of their lives. One systematic review of the international evidence found that “self-perceived burden is reported as a significant problem by 19-65% of terminally ill patients”.

A Savanta ComRes survey of older people found “84% say it is difficult for older people to say they feel lonely because they don’t want to be a burden”.

In 2020 the Centre for Ageing Better found “The repeated idea that older people will always be a ‘burden’, or that later life is an inevitable ‘drain’ on societal resources is hugely damaging”.

Polling from More in Common indicates that the British public are concerned about this issue with 58% thinking it is “convincing” that elderly people may seek assisted suicide “because they worry about being a burden” or are under pressure.

During the debate at Second Reading, two MPs who spoke in favour of the Bill (Wera Hobhouse and Dr Simon Opher) seemed to think that the Bill would protect those who request assisted suicide because they feel they are a burden. This is not the case, however.

As the former Supreme Court Justice, Lord Sumption, said in the Times “The current bill contains a number of provisions designed to ensure that patients are not ‘pressured by any other person’ into taking their own lives. The real problem, however, is not the pressure applied by ‘other persons’. It is assumptions which many old and ill people spontaneously make about the attitudes of the society around them. They are afraid of being an emotional or financial burden”.

Proponents of assisted suicide recognise that feeling like a burden is used as a reason to end life

The risk that people will request assisted suicide because they feel they are a burden is one that is widely recognised, even by proponents of assisted dying.

In November last year, shortly before the vote on her Bill, Kim Leadbeater’s interview with PoliticsHome confirmed that “being a burden” would not make someone ineligible under her Bill.

“The eligibility criteria are really clear. The person has to make the decision voluntarily; is not being coerced or pressured by another person into making it”.

Leadbeater was explicit on this point when speaking with The News Agents podcast, when asked about the possibility of a patient requesting assistance in suicide because they felt they were a burden, Leadbeater said that “there is an argument that having personal choice and autonomy is part of the whole process”.

“I mean, there are people who have said to me – I think my mum would probably say this to me – ‘but surely being concerned about being a burden is a legitimate reason as well?’” she added.

“I know I wouldn’t want to be a burden to people, I can say that to you now in the clear light of day. But that’s very different to people saying, ‘I’m doing this because I feel like I’m being a burden’”.

A 2010 commission on assisted suicide led by prominent assisted suicide campaigner, Lord Falconer, said “The Commission accepts that there is a real risk that some individuals might come under pressure to request an assisted death if this option should become available, including direct pressures from family members or medical professionals, indirect pressures caused by societal discrimination or lack of availability of resources for care and support, and self-imposed pressures that could result from the individuals having low self-worth or feeling themselves to be a burden on others”.

Some supporters of assisted suicide believe ‘being a burden’ is a reason to seek assisted suicide

In a leading article for the Economist, which is a major supporter of introducing assisted suicide, the author argues “Someone may choose an assisted death for fear of being a burden… It would be better if people didn’t feel burdensome, obviously, but that does not stop them from making rational choices”.

Similarly, the Guardian’s Polly Toynbee has written “As for being a burden, yes, many don’t want a humiliating dependency on others in their very last days – and for them, assisted dying is a reasonable choice”.

Baroness Hale, the former President of the Supreme Court and a supporter of the Bill said “One of the things I find most difficult is that I don’t think it’s necessarily irrational for somebody to take into account the suffering their suffering is causing to the people dear to them, or the burden that looking after them is placing upon the whole community”.

“I wouldn’t call that ‘undue influence’, but it’s one of the questions I find most difficult about all of this. You know, obviously there’s duress, there’s financial abuse, there are all of those sorts of things that have got to be checked against, and there ought to be objective evidence of absence of that. But when it comes down to somebody thinking, ‘I don’t want to be a cause of others suffering’, that seems to me to be a reasonable thing for somebody to take into account”.

Spokesperson for Right To Life UK, Catherine Robinson, said “Leadbeater’s Bill offers no protection for people towards the end of their life who might be tempted to end their own lives because they feel like a burden. Indeed, sadly some supporters of the Bill are completely open to the idea that ‘being a burden’ is a perfectly good reason to end one’s life”.

“Cleverly’s amendment is a small step to lessen the damage of an extremely dangerous Bill that should be scrapped entirely”.

​​Dear reader,

On Friday 29 November, MPs narrowly voted to support Kim Leadbeater’s dangerous assisted suicide Bill at Second Reading.

But this is only the first step - there’s still time to stop it.

An analysis published in The Independent shows that at least 36 MPs who supported the Bill made it clear they did so only to allow time for further debate or they have concerns that mean they won’t commit to supporting the Bill at Third Reading.

With the vote passing by a margin of 55, just 28 MPs switching their stance to oppose the Bill would ensure it is defeated at Third Reading.

With more awareness of the serious risks, many MPs could change their position.

If enough do, we can defeat this Bill at Third Reading and stop it from becoming law.

You can make a difference right now by contacting your MP to vote NO at Third Reading. It only takes 30 seconds using our easy-to-use tool, which you can access by clicking the button below.