New research has suggested that people in Britain would rather improve the NHS and palliative care services instead of legalising assisted suicide.
In June the House of Commons voted in favour of a private member’s bill brought forward by Labour MP Kim Leadbeater. The bill, which is to be debated in the House of Lords on Friday, will allow terminally ill patients to end their own lives with the assistance of medical professionals.
The government is split on the issue, with Health Secretary Wes Streeting expressing concerns that it will add to the NHS’ already strained budget and significantly alter the doctor-patient relationship.
A new poll, commissioned by campaign group Care Not Killing, found that legalising assisted suicide was the lowest healthcare priority among members of the public.
Just 13 per cent said it should be a priority, compared with 70 per cent who said that reducing waiting lists was the most pressing issue.
The poll also found that 63 per cent of respondents agreed with Wes Streeting when he said that the £425 million required over the next decade to fund assisted suicide could be better spent elsewhere.
Dr Gordon Macdonald, CEO of Care Not Killing, commented, "This new poll confirms exactly what doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals have been saying, their patients neither want nor need assisted dying, instead they want the government to fix our broken NHS.
“The public's priorities are cutting waiting lists, supporting palliative care and hospices and improving cancer care not pushing with indecent haste a policy that will fundamentally change the NHS and healthcare in the UK and lead to the deaths of the vulnerable, the elderly and disabled people exactly as we have seen in the handful of places that have legalised assisted suicide or euthanasia.”
According to the poll, 41 per cent of the public say that assisted suicide should not even be considered until adequate palliative care is available to all who need it, when they need it.
A number of medical bodies, including the Royal Colleges of psychiatrists, physicians and GPs have indicated they are against the proposals, although mainly for practical rather than moral reasons.
Today another doctor's group, Our Duty of Care published a letter signed by over 50 psychiatrists criticised the bill as representing a “seismic shift” that would mean their role went from attempting to prevent suicide, to assisting it.
The letter says, “As psychiatrists, we have extensive experience in assessing and treating individuals who express a wish to die. We know that people with terminal illness are at heightened risk of depression, demoralisation and impaired decision-making.
“Their requests are often shaped by untreated symptoms, by pain and fear, or by social and financial pressures. The Bill makes no provision for these needs to be identified and addressed. Without such safeguards, assisted suicide cannot be regarded as an autonomous or informed choice.”
