Most Brits say assisted suicide is too 'complex' to rush

(Photo: iStock/Andrei_R)

Most Brits think Parliament should take time to consider the complexities of assisted suicide, a new 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 public (62 per cent) believe the issue is "too complex and polarised" to be rushed through. This was the feeling even among over half (57 per cent) of people who favoured changing the law. 

Over a third of respondents (38 per cent) said they worried that a loved one might feel pressured to end their life if the law is changed, while the same proportion said that at least one relative had voiced the feeling that they did not want to be a burden to others if they ever became infirm.  

Four in 10 (42 per cent) agreed that "the right solution would be to improve end-of-life care and social care rather 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 would allow people to have a pain-free death, and three-quarters (76 per cent) thought "people should have a right to say how and when they die".

Just over four in 10 (43 per cent) thought it was "kinder to families of the terminally ill" and three in 10 said it would "ease pressure on the NHS and social care".

CNK CEO Dr Gordon Macdonald said: "These results are clear. MPs should focus on mending the UK's broken palliative care and social care system instead of rushing to bring forward legislation that would lead to vulnerable people ending their lives prematurely with the help of the state."

MPs planning to vote against the bill include Labour Health Secretary, Wes Streeting, who said he does not believe the current standard of palliative care in the UK is sufficient to safely offer assisted suicide. He has also said that he would "hate for people to opt for assisted dying because they think they're saving someone somewhere money, whether that's 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" aimed at stopping the legislation from being debated. 

The amendment reads, "This House declines to give a second reading to the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill because the House's procedures for the consideration of private members' bills do not allow for sufficient debate on and scrutiny of a bill on a matter of this importance."

It would have to be chosen by the Speaker of the House in order to be voted on during the debate. 

The Bishop of London, Dame Sarah Mullally, and the head 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" become a "duty to die" for vulnerable people.

"Part of the role of faith leaders in communities is to provide spiritual and pastoral care for the sick and for the dying. We hold the hands of loved ones in their final days, we pray with families both before and after death. It is to this vocation that we have been called, and it is from this vocation that we write," the letter reads.

"Our pastoral roles make us deeply concerned about the impact the bill would have on the most vulnerable, opening up the possibility of life-threatening abuse and coercion. This is a concern we know is shared by many people, with and without faith."

Over a hundred academics specialising in health, end of life care and the legal system have signed a separate open letter saying that "coercion would be a reality with a change in the law", and that it "lacks prudence to allow 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 about the state getting rid of inconveniently ill people putting pressure on the welfare system."