A palliative care specialist was at the House of Commons this week to encourage MPs to uphold the current law on assisted suicide and work towards improving palliative care.

The case against assisted suicide was made at an event earlier this week organised by the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC) and hosted by SNP MP Lisa Cameron. 

Dr Dominic Whitehouse, a doctor working in palliative care, told MPs from across the political spectrum that based on his own medical experience, legalising assisted suicide would affect vulnerable patients by creating a pressure on them to die. 

He presented evidence from the US showing that in 2018, over half of those killed by assisted suicide in Washington state (51%) and in the state of Oregon (54%) said they had decided to end their lives because of the burden on family and friends.

"I have shown you why legalisation of physician assisted suicide would be a bad idea, and likely to harm patients, doctors and the public at large, and shown you how, on the other hand, good palliative care, properly funded, and equitably available, is the humane answer to suffering at the end of life," Dr Whitehouse said. 

"It should be our promise to our citizens at the end of their lives whenever they need it."

Campaign groups in the UK are calling for a change to the law to legalise assisted suicide but research suggests strong reservations among medical professionals, with one recent poll by the Royal College of Physicians finding that 84% of palliative specialists said they would be unwilling to assist in a patient's death. 

Ms Cameron said she hoped that Tuesday's event would persuade many of her colleagues in Parliament "to seriously consider the implications of and their position on legalizing assisted dying".

"Debating matters of life and death is one of the most important things we do as MPs, and it was excellent getting this insight from a doctor who works at the front line of these issues," she said.