There are currently multiple attempts to introduce assisted suicide in different parts of the UK. Here are 10 things you need to know about it.
1. ‘Assisted Dying’ and ‘Assisted Suicide’ are contested terms
Although pro-assisted suicide campaigning groups like to use the term ‘Assisted Dying’, this is not a term that has any status in law, and is a euphemism used to refer to the supply of lethal drugs to people so that the recipients might end their own lives. To provide these is prohibited under Section 2 of the 1961 Suicide Act and is a criminal offence. We and others believe the appropriate term is assisted suicide, as this describes what is actually occurring, the wilful act of ending your life prematurely.
2. Assisted Suicide does not mean the withdrawing of treatment
57% of people in the UK do not actually know what assisted suicide is. Although many people believe that assisted suicide refers to doctors withholding treatment, and reaching a natural but more accelerated end, this is not the case: this is already legal and is a common part of end-of-life palliative care, and every patient (as long as they are deemed mentally capable) is also entitled to refuse medical treatment. Assisted suicide refers to the giving of lethal drugs to actively end life, not to letting a disease take its natural course.
3. Assisted Suicide undermines suicide prevention efforts
A number of studies have demonstrated a causal link between the introduction of assisted suicide laws and an increase in non-assisted suicides (particularly for women) in both Europe and North America. In Oregon, suicide rates have risen by 24% since assisted suicide was introduced.
4. Most people do not choose Assisted Suicide to avoid 'unbearable suffering'
Despite the debate being dominated by 'scare-stories' of people dying in unbearable pain, evidence from around the world suggests that it is not the main reason why people choose an Assisted Suicide. In Oregon, it does not actually appear in the top five published reasons, and it is below being a burden on family, friends and caregivers (a reason given by 47% of respondents).
5. Safeguards do not provide adequate levels of safety.
Although every global proposal to introduce legislation includes safeguards, these safeguards have been swiftly abandoned in other countries. Legislation has been widened in Belgium and the Netherlands to include euthanasia of children. In Canada, legislation is being considered which would include children and there are plans to expand it to include those with mental illness. In Belgium, people have been euthanised due to depression, blindness, anorexia and gender dysphoria.
6. Assisted Suicide does not only affect small numbers of people
Although campaigners for assisted suicide claim that the number of people accessing these services would be small, this is not backed up by evidence from around the world. In the Netherlands in 2023, euthanasia constituted more than 5% of all deaths, with numbers more than quadrupling since its inception. In Canada, where legislation was only introduced in 2016, assisted suicide already constituted more than 4% of all deaths by 2022.
7. Vulnerable groups will be particularly adversely affected by assisted suicide
Many disabled groups are very frightened and offended by the prospect of assisted suicide legislation, and people believing their lives are not worth living. No disability group has come out in support of assisted suicide, and in the UK, 350 disability groups have come out against it. In Oregon, where assisted suicide is permitted only for those with terminal illness, terminal illness has been defined as including conditions such as anorexia.
8. Assisted Suicide particularly affects those living in poverty
Recent data from an official report in Ontario, Canada, found that people living in the poorest communities were disproportionately likely to choose to access Canada's MAiD (Medical Assistance in Dying) programme when their illness was not terminal (they comprised 29% of deaths, but only 20% of the population). Other anecdotal reports from Canada suggest that people have sought to access MAiD because they were homeless (even if they were officially able to access it for other reasons), and a 2023 poll found that 28% of Canadians saw no problem with people accessing MAiD for no reason other than the fact they were homeless.
9. Doctors are not able to confidently determine when someone will die
Although doctors are capable of predicting when someone will die in the final few hours or even days of their life, when the prognosis is for six months of living (as it would have to be under the typically-proposed safeguards), the margin of error can be years. The Royal College of Physicians once told a committee when giving evidence about the introduction of Assisted Suicide: “when they are six or eight months away from [dying], it is actually pretty desperately hopeless as an accurate factor.”
10. We need more investment in palliative care
Although there are a small number of tragic cases where someone is in great pain that cannot be medically relieved, the overwhelming majority of deaths are peaceful and calm, particularly in light of developments in palliative care. In Canada, less than half of those who participate in assisted suicide or euthanasia even see a palliative care team, and the average growth in palliative care cases was far slower in countries which had brought in assisted dying than those without it.
