Most Brits think Parliament should take time to think about the complexities of assisted suicide, a recent survey has found.
Parliament is to debate Kim Leadbeater’s assisted dying bill on Friday but polling by Whitestone Insight for Care Not Killing (CNK) has found that a majority of the general public (62 per cent) consider the problem is “too complex and polarised” to be rushed through. This was the sensation even amongst over half (57 per cent) of people that favoured changing the law.
Over a 3rd of respondents (38 per cent) said they apprehensive that a loved one might feel pressured to finish their life if the law is modified, while the identical proportion said that a minimum of one relative had voiced the sensation that they didn’t wish to be a burden to others in the event that they ever became infirm.
Four in 10 (42 per cent) agreed that “the appropriate solution can be to enhance end-of-life care and social care fairly than offer patients assisted suicide/dying”, against 30 per cent who disagreed.
Among reasons given for supporting a change to the law, 80 per cent said it might allow people to have a pain-free death, and three-quarters (76 per cent) thought “people must have a right to say how and once they die”.
Just over 4 in 10 (43 per cent) thought it was “kinder to families of the terminally unwell” and three in 10 said it might “ease pressure on the NHS and social care”.
CNK CEO Dr Gordon Macdonald said: “These results are clear. MPs should deal with mending the UK’s broken palliative care and social care system as an alternative of rushing to bring forward laws that might result in vulnerable people ending their lives prematurely with the assistance of the state.”
MPs planning to vote against the bill include Labour Health Secretary, Wes Streeting, who said he doesn’t consider the present standard of palliative care within the UK is sufficient to soundly offer assisted suicide. He has also said that he would “hate for people to go for assisted dying because they think they’re saving someone somewhere money, whether that is relatives or the NHS”.
Conservative MP Ben Spencer, Lib Dem MP Munira Wilson, and Labour’s Anna Dixon have co-sponsored a so-called “wrecking amendment” geared toward stopping the laws from being debated.
The amendment reads, “This House declines to offer a second reading to the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill since the House’s procedures for the consideration of personal members’ bills don’t allow for sufficient debate on and scrutiny of a bill on a matter of this importance.”
It would must be chosen by the Speaker of the House in an effort to be voted on through the debate.
The Bishop of London, Dame Sarah Mullally, and the top of the Catholic Church in England and Wales, Cardinal Vincent Nichols, have signed an open letter with other faith leaders warning of the risks to legalising assisted suicide.
The letter, published in The Observer, said that a “right to die” may “all too easily” turn into a “duty to die” for vulnerable people.
“Part of the role of religion leaders in communities is to offer spiritual and pastoral take care of the sick and for the dying. We hold the hands of family members of their final days, we pray with families each before and after death. It is to this vocation that we’ve got been called, and it’s from this vocation that we write,” the letter reads.
“Our pastoral roles make us deeply concerned concerning the impact the bill would have on essentially the most vulnerable, opening up the potential for life-threatening abuse and coercion. This is a priority we all know is shared by many individuals, with and without faith.”
Over 100 academics specialising in health, end of life care and the legal system have signed a separate open letter saying that “coercion can be a reality with a change within the law”, and that it “lacks prudence to permit such a radical change to healthcare practice at a time of crisis for the NHS, especially given the increased financial pressures on general practice, hospices and care homes”.
Lois McLatchie Miller, of the Alliance Defending Freedom UK, said, “Make no mistake – assisted dying is concerning the state eliminating inconveniently unwell people putting pressure on the welfare system.”
