Campaigners have warned that access to legalised assisted suicide could result in the depressed and the elderly volunteering to be euthanised.
A general debate in Westminster Hall on Monday saw MPs from across the political spectrum speak in favour of legalising medically-assisted suicide on grounds that it gives people with terminal conditions a dignified death and spares families from watching loved ones suffer.
However, critics warned that the legal constraints of who would be eligible for assisted suicide would not remain limited to those with terminal conditions, with MPs listing cases overseas where young people with PTSD and depression have accessed state-sponsored euthanasia.
Conservative MP Sir Desmond Swayne detailed the case of 23-year-old Shanti De Corte, who was euthanised in 2022 in Belgium because she suffered from PTSD after having survived the 2016 Brussels airport Islamist terror attack.
The MP for New Forest West said that going from assisted dying for the terminally ill to assisted dying for those with non-fatal conditions like depression has been “the trajectory” of travel in “all those jurisdictions that have introduced it.”
“If we use assisted dying as a therapy to end suffering—for which other therapies exist—we will have made a profound transformation in assisted dying, changing it from being a means of ending suffering, in death, to a means of ending suffering in life,” Sir Desmond warned.
Right to Die Becomes Duty to Die
Campaigners for and against assisted suicide demonstrated outside of the Houses of Parliament, with pro-life advocates echoing Sir Desmond’s concerns that access to euthanasia would widen beyond the initial intended scope.Dr. Mark Pickering, CEO at the Christian Medical Fellowship and spokesman for Care Not Killing, described the measures as “Pandora’s Box,” telling NTD UK News that once you open it, “you can’t close it,” citing The Netherlands, Belgium, and Canada where assisted suicide has extended beyond its initial intentions.
Dr. Pickering also said that in a number of countries, the approach to assisted suicide had moved from “the right to die, to the duty to die,” because “once people get into the idea that death is something that we should offer you, provide for you, and occasionally support you and encourage you in [...] then very soon, people start to cut corners and think, ‘You know, maybe you should be opting for that as well.’”
Back in Parliament, government minister Laura Farris said it was true that when the Canadian legislation was introduced in 2016, “the threshold was whether the individual suffered from a grievous and irremediable medical condition where death was reasonably foreseeable.
“What has been delayed, but nonetheless agreed is to remove the requirement that death is foreseeable. And finally, they are also mulling whether the Act should apply to circumstances where there is no physical disease at all.”
Sir Desmond also quoted statistics from Oregon, the U.S. state where assisted suicide had been legal for two decades, which found that 52 percent of applicants “wanted it because they didn’t want to be a burden—far exceeding those who wanted it to avoid pain in death.”
“There is a profound danger in my view, that what begins as a choice will end as an expectation,” he said.
Likewise, Stephen Tims MP said that legalising assisted dying would “impose a terrible dilemma” on the elderly, frail, and vulnerable “who don’t want to die but don’t want to be a burden.”
“I don’t think there’s any way to avoid imposing that dilemma,” said Mr. Tims.
Assisted Suicide ‘Corrupts Medicine Completely’
Speaking outside Parliament, Gordon MacDonald from Care Not Killing warned that legalised assisted suicide “corrupts medicine completely,” giving the example of how it would interact with the UK’s opt-out organ donation laws.Mr. MacDonald told NTD UK News: “If people don’t express their views, then it’s assumed that their organs can be donated. So you then put an additional pressure on the health service to consider organ donation as a factor in the whole process.”
He warned that more donated organs as a possible result of the uptake of assisted suicide and the cost savings associated with euthanasia—as apposed to palliative care—could become part of the debate “and it shouldn’t be part of the debate.”
People Don’t Understand What Assisted Dying ‘Actually Means’
Labour MP Tonia Antoniazzi, who opened the Westminster Hall debate, said public opinion on assisted dying “has shifted in one direction,” citing polls by Dignity in Dying showing “overwhelming support for law changes, with safeguards in place.”Fiona Bruce, Conservative MP for Congleton, challenged the Dignity in Dying poll and other similar surveys, on the grounds that respondents were not fully aware of what “assisted dying” means when they said they supported it, saying “we need to be careful” when using such studies.
Ms. Bruce told MPs: “In 2021, a Survation poll asked over 1,000 members of the public what they thought the term ‘assisted dying’ meant. Only four in ten correctly understood it to mean providing those with less than six months to live lethal drugs to end their life.
“However, the same proportion incorrectly thought that it meant giving people who are dying the right to stop life-prolonging treatment—something that is already legal in the UK.
“Concerningly, one in ten said it referred to the provision of hospice-type care for people who are dying. So six in ten did not understand what the term ‘assisted dying’ actually means.”
There was no vote on the proposal as the debate did not constitute a piece of legislation.
Conservative MP Steve Brine said the government had also made it clear in its response published on Monday that it would not bring forward legislation in this area, and possible change in law could be sought through a private members bill.
Lawmakers in Scotland and the Crown Dependencies the Channel Island of Jersey and the Isle of Man are crafting legislation that could legalise assisted dying in their territories.
Sir Keir Starmer, who could be the next prime minister come the General Election, has said that he is personally “committed” to a change in the law on assisted suicide.
“I’m personally in favour of changing the law,” Sir Keir told Dame Esther in a phone conversation aired by ITV News last month.
“We will make the commitment. Esther, I can give you that commitment right now,” he said.
