A matter of life and death – The real effects of euthanasia
The noise around euthanasia has been revitalized as the Terminally Ill Adults’ Bill passes its second reading of parliament. Here’s the debate laid out by experts and those who would be affected.
Protesters from two different sides gathered around parliament on Wednesday 16th October for the hearing of a new bill. Half dressed in colourful pinks, purples and blues holding bright banners whilst the other half clad in black stood behind a prop graveyard. One supporting life, and the other death. On the gravestones were grim facts referencing 60,000 deaths in the past five years in Canada and 5.4% of all deaths in 2023 in the Netherlands, all being caused by euthanasia.
This was the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill’s first hearing in parliament, led by MP Kim Leadbeater and is the first time MPs will have a vote on this issue since 2015.
Euthanasia has long been an issue which has divided people across the UK and the world. Other European countries such as Switzerland and the Netherlands have long allowed euthanasia, while commonwealth nations such as Canada, Australia and New Zealand have all in the past eight years legalized assisted dying.
Alistair Thompson, from anti-euthanasia group Care Not Killing says: ‘There isn’t a territory in the world that over time euthanasia hasn’t changed and expanded’. He and his group believe that whilst the proposed bill may not seem predatory to the UK population, it may change over time to become something more dangerous.
Thompson comes from a family of medical practitioners, so cites this as a key reason for his personal beliefs and decision to make those beliefs his living, ‘I think it's a huge missed opportunity, 1 in 4 Brits that would benefit from palliative care do not receive it.’ Key in the group’s aims are that people should be properly cared for and given the chance to be cured, ‘we should be fixing that problem before we go down this route because where we do palliative care really well, there is no need for assisted suicide’.
Sean Redfern from Christian Concern, a religious group, believes that euthanasia sets a dangerous precedent. ‘We think the ramifications of such a bill would be chilling and dangerous,’ he explains, ‘inherent in the legalization of assisted suicide is the message that you can justifiably determine that your life is not worth living and as soon as you put that message out into society, people with depression for example immediately have justification for something they really shouldn’t’. The National Library of Medicine conducted an investigation, analyzing the relationship between the choice of assisted suicide and non-assisted suicide. Four studies showed an increase in non-assisted suicide, but they concluded this was of no significance when sociodemographic factors were counted for.
However, the majority of the UK population seem to support the choice of assisted dying, 65% of UK adults supporting the option.
Although doctors, physicians and medical practitioners are more torn. Forty percent believe the BMA (British Medical association) should be supportive of a change in law on prescribing drugs for eligible patients to self-administer to take their own life, whilst 33% opposed (27% were neutral or undecided). Fifty percent said they personally support a change in the law, regardless of the BMA’s position.
These figures become more interesting as the conditions change to personally administering drugs, rather than prescribing. The percentage of doctors who believe the BMA should support this change drops to 30%, whilst only 26% would be willing to participate in any way if the law was to be changed.
Dignity in Dying, a pro-euthanasia campaign group have focused their campaigning on a study suggesting that between 300 and 650 terminally ill patients take their life every year, with between 3,000 and 6,500 attempting to do so.
Business owner Elaine Phipps has a terminally ill Mother and supports the bill as it moves through parliament. ‘I think if someone has a terminal illness or disability that leaves them in pain with no quality of life then you should be able to have help in ending your suffering in a controlled, painless and dignified way.’ She made sure to distinguish how choice ‘must be made by the individual, and not by the coercion of others’.
The bill passed its second reading in parliament on 29th November, and whilst this is a step closer, it is still far from being made into law. The debate on euthanasia’s last outing in parliament in 2015 passed its second reading, and opposition attempts to derail the bill were heavily defeated. But due to an upcoming election the bill was scrapped nearly two years after it was first brought to parliament, meaning the dialogue around the bill’s next attempt is far from over.
Written 31st November 2024