Advocates of introducing assisted suicide have shown their true colours by wanting to liberalise laws which are still merely on their first reading.

New laws have been put forward in the Isle of Man that would give terminally ill people the right to end their lives. The Assisted Dying Bill includes safeguards and criteria that must be met in order to carry out assisted suicide. To be eligible you must be “an island resident diagnosed with a terminal illness, with a life expectancy of six months or less”.

The bill came after results of a consultation were published earlier this year about potential changes to the law, which saw a slight majority of respondents oppose the introduction of assisted suicide legislation: 49.61% of people disagreed with the proposal and 49.01% agreed.

The bill has been subject to much criticism: the President of the Isle of Man’s medical society publicly stated the potential bill would “irreparably damage our caring Manx society”; he continued by expressing how the changes would only “provide more choice for the privileged and put more pressure on the sick, aged, poor, disabled and vulnerable”.

However, Trevor Moore, chair of the campaign group ‘My Death My Decision’ had said that the criteria was “too narrow” and failed to address the needs of others with terminal illnesses. Lobby group ‘Humanists UK’ said the law should also cover those people “who are incurably and intolerably suffering”. Campaigner Nathan Stilwell said it was “really positive to see some progression” but also agreed that the stipulation of a sixth-month life expectancy was too restrictive.

At CARE, we oppose the introduction of such a bill, and do not believe that any safeguards are likely to hold.

In Canada, assisted suicide was first introduced with similar criteria to that of the proposed bill in the Isle of Man, however with further amendments in 2021, assisted suicide eligibility has widened to allow assisted suicide to take place if the person has a significant disability and/or chronic disease. In 2017, Canada saw 2,838 medically assisted deaths, which had significantly increased in 2021 as more than 10,000 medically assisted deaths took place.