Legalising assisted suicide would tell terminally sick and disabled ‘their lives are price lower than others’

An assisted suicide bill to be debated in Parliament this week will send a “dog whistle message” to the terminally sick and other vulnerable people “that their lives are price lower than others”, a coalition of organisations has warned. 

The Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults Bill is being recommend by Lord Falconer and is resulting from have its first reading within the House of Lords on Friday. 

It seeks to legalise assisted suicide for adults of sound mind who’ve six months or less to live.

Humanists UK, which supports the bill, said that it “has a powerful likelihood of becoming law, on condition that the Prime Minister has repeatedly committed to creating time for a bill to pass”.

Care Not Killing (CNK), an alliance of 40 organisations campaigning for higher palliative care as a substitute of assisted suicide, said that the proposals would put vulnerable people in danger, and that they’re a “missed opportunity” to overhaul the palliative care sector. 

Dr Gordon Macdonald, CNK chief executive, said, “Yet again, Lord Falconer and few fanatical supporters of assisted suicide and euthanasia will push a bill that sends a dog whistle message to the terminally sick, vulnerable, elderly and disabled people, that their lives are price lower than others.

“This is why we see in places like Oregon the model previously advanced by supporters of adjusting the law, a majority cite fear of being a burden on the families, carers of funds as a reason why they’re ending their lives.” 

He highlighted “worrying” data from the US and Europe that implies an overall rise in suicides throughout the general population in places where assisted suicide has been legalised. 

He warned that in countries like Canada, which made assisted suicide legal in 2016, the list of acceptable conditions has widened far beyond terminal illness. 

“In Canada, which has a euthanasia system, 1,400 of those whose lives were led to 2022 cited loneliness as a reason, while we’ve seen cases of military veterans, a Paralympian and multiple disabled people being offered an assisted death slightly than the support and care they should live with dignity and that is before the plans extend their law to permit those with mental health problems to be killed,” he said. 

Dr Macdonald urged parliamentarians to make palliative care their priority, as a substitute of assisted suicide. 

“This is a missed opportunity of gigantic proportions to try to fix the UK’s broken palliative care system, which has been under-funded for many years and fails around one in 4 Brits,” he said.

“Indeed, the recent Health and Social Care Committee recommend Parliament take a look at easy methods to close the gaps in palliative care, not easy methods to help people end their lives – this ought to be the priority not a dangerous an ideological policy that can fundamentally alter health care and result in many premature deaths.”

If you might have been affected by suicide or any of the problems raised in this text, the Samaritans may be contacted on 116 123.