New report shows ‘complexity’ of state-sponsored suicide

Legalising assisted suicide in Britain would pose ‘significant challenges’, a new report has warned.

The Nuffield Trust looked at 15 jurisdictions around the world which have implemented assisted suicide.

The think tank found that across all locations the number of people helped by the state to kill themselves increased over time. It therefore concluded that introducing assisted suicide in the UK would drain health care resources beyond the hefty cost of implementation.

Substantial funding

The Nuffield Trust said its report, ‘Assisted dying in practice’, provided “the most detailed look to date at what the UK can learn from other countries as the UK and Scottish Parliaments debate bills to legalise assisted dying”.

It found that “safe and effective implementation will require substantial planning, infrastructure and funding, all of which are scarce in today’s NHS amid staff cuts, reorganisation, tight finances, and patchy access to end of life care”.

It also warned the Government against offering “disproportionate rewards for providing assisted dying” at the expense of funding end-of-life care.

Very complicated

Sarah Scobie, Deputy Director of Research at Nuffield Trust, said: “With assisted dying remaining a contested issue, and our health and care systems struggling under immense pressure, implementing a new service won’t be straightforward.

She also raised concerns about “barriers to accessing assisted dying” in other countries.

The Trust’s Director of Research and Policy, Dr Becks Fisher, warned that implementing assisted suicide in the UK will be a “very complicated thing to do”, adding, “the complexity involved in doing this cannot be underestimated”.

Dangerous and controversial

Lord David Alton commented on X: “The Nuffield Trust has warned about the potential risks to the NHS posed by legalising assisted suicide || They are right. Setting up a National Death Service within the NHS will require new infrastructure and funding.

“This is the wrong priority. Comprehensive and strengthened palliative care – in hospices and at home is what produces dignity in dying, not lethal injections”.

Care not Killing CEO Dr Gordon Macdonald stated: “We agree with the report that in all the jurisdictions that have legalised assisted suicide or euthanasia, over time there is pressure to erode safeguards and widen eligibility criteria.

“It is time that Parliament ditched the dangerous and controversial bill and instead turn their attention to fixing the UK’s broken palliative and social care systems that are failing many vulnerable, elderly and disabled people.”

Westminster and Holyrood

A number of peers have pledged to fight against Kim Leadbeater’s dangerous assisted suicide Bill for England and Wales in the House of Lords, following it being voted through the Commons in June.

In Scotland, Liam McArthur’s assisted suicide Bill has progressed to stage 2, and MSPs on the Health, Social Care and Sport Committee will debate proposed amendments on 4 November.