UK assisted death bill: a disability perspective

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

Madeleine Kearns has written an excellent article examining the issues related to the UK assisted death bill from a disability perspective, published in The Free Press on November 27, 2024. 

Jamie Hale

Kim Leadbeater's assisted dying bill will have it's second reading vote on November 29. Kearns writes:

Jamie Hale has been in and out of the hospital for more than half his life. The 33-year-old Brit needs a wheelchair and relies on partial ventilation and round-the-clock care. Several years ago, he was critically ill and hospitalized for six months “as a direct result of not having had that care,” he told me from the back of a car on his way to a weekly visit at a National Health Service clinic in London. “I’d be dead without the NHS,” he concludes. 

Even so, Hale—who has a master’s degree in philosophy, politics, and the economics of health—often thinks about how much his life costs the state. “I’m very aware I’m not cost-effective,” he added. “It’s very hard not to be aware you are the kind of financial burden the system is creaking under.” 

Hale is deeply opposed to the assisted suicide bill that the United Kingdom’s Parliament is voting on this week.

Hale, who is not terminally ill, is concerned about assisted dying. Kearns explains:

At first glance, the law appears to have little to do with people like Hale. His condition, which he prefers not to specify, is chronic and progressive, but it isn’t terminal. Still, he’s among many disabled people, end-of-life doctors, and concerned citizens who fear the law could put vulnerable people under pressure to end their lives, and start a slippery slope toward future laws allowing euthanasia for the disabled, the poor, and the depressed.

Opposition to assisted dying comes from many perspectives:

If the law passes, Hale worries it will “change the way we think” about end-of-life care. “It’s going to make it look perhaps increasingly selfish to stay alive in an expensive way.”

Kearns interviewed Claire MacDonald, Director of development for the assisted death lobby group, My Death, My Decision. MacDonald argues that people want to avoid a bad death and many people in Britain are dying a bad death.

Matthew Doré

Matthew Doré, honorary Secretary of the Association of Palliative Medicine of Great Britain and Ireland, opposes assisted dying and says that legalizing assisted dying is not necessary:

... it’s common for people coming into a hospice to say, “I want to die, kill me now,” but once they have the holistic support they need, that feeling “just melts away, disappears pretty much completely in almost everyone.”

Not all assisted deaths are peaceful:

What’s more, assisted suicide does not always lead to a more peaceful death, Doré said. Studies show that complications from the lethal drugs include burning, nausea, vomiting, and regurgitation, severe dehydration, seizures, and regaining consciousness. In Oregon, the annual complication rate is nearly 15 percent, although it’s likely higher given that “patients often ingest the lethal drugs without a healthcare professional present to record complications,” one study reported.

Kearns states that legalizing assisted death will save healthcare money:

Once the jewel of the UK, the National Health Service has recently been dogged by staff shortages and strikes. A 2024 report found the UK lagging behind 10 other developed countries on hospital wait times. Only Canada had comparably long wait times, while the U.S. was one of the best-performing countries for timely access to care. ...Earlier this month, a Telegraph columnist wrote that “assisted dying will leave society financially better off” as well as help “people protect their family wealth.” Earlier this year, a Times of London writer suggested it would be “a healthy development” if assisted suicide for the infirm is “considered socially responsible—and even, finally, urged upon people.”

Cost savings studies from Canada:

In 2017, one year after Canada legalized assisted suicide, a report estimated the procedure could save the country between $34.7 million and $138.8 million annually. In 2020, ahead of the expansion of Canada’s Medical Assistance in Dying program (MAID) to include those with disabilities and chronic illness, the government projected it would save an additional $62 million a year. At the same time, the number of assisted suicides in the country keeps rising. In 2019, MAID accounted for 5,665 deaths; by 2022, that figure was 13,241. Today, MAID is at least the fifth leading cause of death in Canada.

Wes Streeting, the UK's Secretary of Health, opposes assisted dying:

Wes Streeting, the UK’s Health secretary, worries that assisted dying will come at the expense of NHS funding in other areas. Palliative care in the NHS currently receives only 37 percent of funding from the state, the rest coming from charity. Assisted suicide would be entirely state funded.

Paula Peters, who had a DNR placed on her medical chart without her consent:

And some say the NHS might already be encouraging people toward an untimely death. During the pandemic, Paula Peters, 53, was one of hundreds of people who discovered her doctor put a “do not resuscitate”—or DNR—notice on her medical records without her knowledge. After Peters discovered the DNR on her records, she had to fight for nine months to get it removed, she told The Free Press.  

“My doctor thought I was disposable and expendable because I was clinically extremely vulnerable, and that had a profound impact on me,” said Peters, who has rheumatoid arthritis and other disabilities. “I’m not a piece of rubbish you can just toss aside.” 

Kearns concludes:

If it becomes law, Hale worries that a society uncomfortable with disability will suddenly have more justification to remove people like him from it. “If you live long enough, you will probably become disabled,” he said. “People don’t necessarily want to engage with that. We are the future that they’re terrified of.”

Previous articles about the UK assisted suicide bill: (Link to articles).