Legalising assisted suicide: why now?

The papers are reporting that Sir Keir Starmer supports fast-tracking a bill to make a seismic change in British law. He reportedly wants to legalise assisting the suicide of terminally ill adults with a vote in parliament before Christmas. But why is this apparently among his top priorities?

Whilst some high-profile supporters of assisted suicide see this as important, bringing a bill like this isn’t a priority for ordinary Britons, not even for those who would say they support the change in principle. In a recent poll of over 2,000 adults, legalising assisted suicide ranked 22 out of 23 of issues needing attention.  Issues such as ‘regulating AI’ and ‘international trade deals’ ranked higher. Only four per cent of those polled thought it should be a priority for politicians. The drive to rush this bill isn’t coming from the electorate.

Doubtless, Sir Keir believes his urgency is driven by compassion for those at the end of their lives who might be suffering. But if he is driven by compassion for the dying, then we must ask, is this really a timely prescription? Health and Social Care Secretary Wes Streeting is less sure that it is. In early September, he said that the country’s end-of-life services aren’t in good enough shape to be sure that legalising ‘Assisted Dying’ won’t be a prescription that comes with the very nasty side effect of seeing people ‘coerced [into assisted suicide] by the lack of support available’.

And Mr Streeting’s concerns about end-of-life care are backed up by the Better End of Life report published by Marie Curie this month. The report contains the findings from a national post-bereavement survey. It is heartbreaking to read the recently bereaved report ‘that staff across health and social care settings did not have enough time to provide care for dying people’. Half of those surveyed were unhappy with the care the person who died received, and as many as 1 in 17 even resorted to making a formal complaint about the care the dying person received.

Also, this month, we’ve had the Darzi report, which put down in writing what many have been experiencing for some time: ‘The national health service is in serious trouble’. A major finding of the report is the crisis in general practice, including ever-rising GP waiting times, which will necessarily impact the care available to those in the community approaching the end of life. And Darzi adds an important note to this debate by reminding us that shortages of GP appointments aren’t an evenly distributed struggle. Rather, these shortages are ‘particularly acute’ in deprived communities.

And if those at the end of life need a more specialist palliative care input, the situation is just as perilous. Over the summer, Hospice UK sent urgent warnings to politicians highlighting that hospices were being forced to make staff redundant as their finances were in the worst state for 20 years.

People approaching the end of life need better support. Their bereaved relatives are telling us that those who died recently needed carers who had time to care for them. They also needed access to their doctor in whichever area of the country they lived in. They needed hospice care that was properly staffed and properly funded. If Sir Keir wants to improve the quality of life for ordinary Britons facing their terminal illness, then tackling these things is what is urgent. If parliament instead focuses on ploughing energy into producing and debating a bill to attempt to make it legal to assist them in committing suicide, then it is seriously missing the mark.

The parallels with Canada, where assisting suicide is legal, are hard to miss. Amongst many similar stories that come to mind, one that stands out is that of the Paralympian who asked for help to get a much-needed wheelchair lift for her home but was instead offered assistance to end her life.

If you were approaching the end of your life, facing the possibility of carers without time to care, a shortage of GP appointments, and your local hospice cutting jobs, what might you hope for from your prime minister? Offering those in desperate need of care a prescription to help them kill themselves is, at best, tone-deaf and, at worst, something much more sinister.

If you want an update on why all of this matters and what you can do about it, please look at joining the assisted suicide seminar organised by Christians in Care and Our Duty of Care, online on 7 October 2024, 2-3 pm BST.