Hundreds of medical students urge MPs to reject assisted suicide Bill

Hundreds of medical students have written to MPs to urge them to vote down Kim Leadbeater’s assisted suicide Bill.

The open letter lays out the future doctors’ ethical and practical concerns about the Bill, stating that they entered the profession to preserve life, not to take it.

Under the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, patients deemed to be terminally ill and with less than six months to live would be allowed to receive help to kill themselves. The crucial Third Reading vote – MPs’ final decision on whether to approve the Bill and send it to the House of Lords – is expected tomorrow.

Risking the vulnerable

In the letter, one area of concern mentioned is the lack of accuracy in predicting life expectancy, with studies showing that doctors are wrong in up to 40% of terminal illness cases. They wrote: “We have to question: are we really able to offer an irreversible intervention to patients based solely on unreliable predictions?”

Another concern raised was how depression isn’t accounted for: “a sense of being a burden is one of the most cited reasons for seeking assisted dying in other countries.

“When we combine this with the consideration that there are high rates of depression among the terminally ill, we are left with a situation where we are not weighing up the holistic approach of caring for patients that is required at the end of their life.”

The medical students commented on the ‘postcode lottery’ of palliative care, saying that for a society where not everyone has access to good palliative care: “Rather than offering choice, the Bill risks removing it for the most vulnerable.”

Draw an ethical line

The students also warned of a future widening of the legislation: “If we cannot draw a firm ethical line now, we will find it increasingly difficult to do so in the future.”

They added: “We oppose a Bill that risks offering death in place of care, that widens health inequalities, that places vulnerable patients in danger, and that reshapes the ethical foundation that our profession is built upon without any clear support”.

The letter concluded: “As future doctors, we may not yet be the voice of this profession – but we will be. And we are asking to be heard.”