Leading psychiatrists urge UK lawmakers to ‘overwhelmingly reject’ assisted suicide bill

Leading psychiatrists are warning the UK government not to legalize assisted suicide, stating the legislation that is being pushed through parliament should be “overwhelmingly rejected.”

According to The Times, a group of 24 experts is “alarmed” by the speed at which pro-assisted death legislators are pushing the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill. They advised legislators to reject the proposed law, arguing that it could put pressure on patients to take their own lives instead of receiving appropriate mental health care and support for loneliness and grief, as well as the feeling that they are a burden on their family.

The bill, spearheaded by Labour MP Kim Leadbeater, would legalize physician-assisted death for individuals given less than six months to live. Over three days, 50 expert witnesses provided evidence to a committee of MPs who are reviewing the bill. Originally, the bill committee did not invite the Royal College of Psychiatrists to provide evidence. Following backlash, the MPs invited the doctors to share their expertise and concerns.

“We are alarmed at the haste of the committee considering the bill for assisted dying,” the psychiatrists told The Times in a letter. “Three days of oral evidence seems insufficient to consider such a huge question as doctor-assisted suicide. We hope there will be much more consideration of the written evidence in the weeks to come.”

They continued, “A law on doctor-assisted suicide will undermine the daily efforts of psychiatrists across the UK to prevent suicide. Those who have suicidal ideation at any time in life may be vulnerable to pressure to take their own life by the introduction of doctor-assisted suicide.”

READ: British Medical Association: Let doctors suggest assisted suicide, whether patients want it or not

The experts, including Julian Hughes and Alan Thomas, professors of old-age psychiatry at the universities of Bristol and Newcastle, and Professor Jonathan Cavanagh, a consultant neuropsychiatrist at the University of Glasgow, stated that such vulnerability could be the result of external factors, including a “lack of decent palliative or social care; overt coercion or undue influence; personal losses including bereavement, poor housing or financial hardship.” Internal factors can also play a role in the person’s level of vulnerability and include “major depressive disorder, a sense of burdensomeness, loneliness and social isolation.”

Their arguments are supported by evidence from nations that have legalized assisted death, such as Canada, where 39% of those who went through with Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) in 2023 reported “emotional distress, anxiety, fear or existential suffering,” while 21% cited feelings of “isolation or loneliness.” The experts argued that legalizing assisted death serves to accept suicide “as a first-line option for these types of suffering” in individuals living with illnesses.

A three-part report from Ontario found that many MAiD deaths are due not to illness or suffering, but fear, homelessness, and isolation. The report also found that poor and vulnerable populations often face coercion to undergo euthanasia.

“With the legalisation of MAiD, real lives are at stake and the dangers of a slippery slope are very real,” Dr. Ramona Coelho, a family medicine practitioner who sat on the expert committee panel, told The Telegraph. “When Canada legalised assisted suicide and euthanasia under MAiD in 2016, Canadians believed it was intended to be a rare, last-resort measure, reserved for consenting adults enduring intolerable suffering at the end of life. However, lobbying efforts have steadily pushed for broader access and eligibility.”

Doctors in Canada have faced pressure to push assisted suicide to save the government money. In 2020, Canada’s Parliamentary Budget Officer publicly released a report that its MAiD program has created a “net cost reduction” of $86.9 million per year. It also noted that expanding the categories of people who could be eligible for MAiD would create an additional net savings of $62 million per year. Like Canada, the UK also uses universal health care coverage for citizens.

The UK psychiatrists noted in the letter, “The initial reluctance of the committee to see the need to call the Royal College of Psychiatrists to give evidence is in itself shocking and betrays a lacking understanding of the job that we do in understanding suicide and its prevention. This bill should be overwhelmingly rejected,” adding, “People at the end of life deserve high-quality psychiatric treatment. A wish to hasten death is strongly associated with depression.”