A coalition of over 40 organisations has warned of the “dangers” for terminally in poor health and disabled people if assisted suicide is made legal.
Responding to comments this week by Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer in favour of fixing the law, Care Not Killing said this may put pressure on people to finish their lives prematurely.
Dr Gordon Macdonald, Chief Executive of Care Not Killing, said that current laws “don’t need changing”.
“Changing the law to legalise assisted suicide and euthanasia within the UK would represent a dramatic change in how doctors and nurses treat and look after people and put the lives of the vulnerable, terminally in poor health and disabled people in danger,” he said.
“Indeed, these dangers are particularly acute when the health service is crumbling, hospices are underfunded and one in every 4 individuals who would profit from palliative cannot access it.”
Care Not Killing is a broad alliance of human rights and disability rights organisations, health care and palliative care groups, and faith-based organisations groups committed to raised palliative care and opposing efforts to vary the law on assisted suicide.
The coalition predicts that legalising assisted suicide will result in a rise in overall suicide rates.
Dr Macdonald continued: “Sir Keir must recognise the actual dangers related to legalising state sanctioned killing, similar to the pressure it puts on people to finish their lives prematurely, and the growing body of evidence showing assisted suicide appears normalises suicide in the final populations.
“Indeed, academics who checked out this emerging trend concluded that legalising assisted suicide in Oregon was related to a rise of 6.3 per cent within the numbers of suicides, once all other aspects had been controlled. Among over 65s the figure was greater than double that.
“If this was repeated here within the UK that will mean lots of of more suicides each 12 months.”
The last time Westminster voted on legalising assisted suicide was in 2015, when it was defeated.
Sir Keir has promised to present MPs one other vote on the difficulty if Labour wins the subsequent general election.
A Commons report last month suggested that the law on assisted suicide is more likely to change in parts of the British Isles soon, with Jersey, a Crown Dependency, expected to be first. Scotland and the Isle of Man are also considering changes to the law.
The report from the parliamentary Health and Social Care Committee said that UK ministers must consider the implications of legal divergence on the matter.
