Pro-suicide group pressures UK to legalize assisted death

The physician-assisted death organization Dignitas is pushing the British parliament to legalize assisted death, noting that it has so far helped to kill 540 British individuals.

Silvan Luley, staff at the Swiss Dignitas, told Parliament that the group finds it “inadequate and incoherent” that the UK has not legalized the killing of certain citizens. The 540 British citizens killed by Dignitas equate to more than one in seven of all of its assisted deaths, according to The Guardian. 

The Suicide Act 1961 makes it illegal to encourage or assist a person in suicide in England and Wales.

“It’s about time to change [the law] so that people will feel safe, doctors will feel safe, and then things will improve considerably,” said Luley. He added that “people in the UK would be happy” to die, called death by assisted suicide “the last human right,” and argued “it’s happening anyway.”

However, opponents of assisted suicide told the MPs that legalizing assisted death will lead to increased “elder abuse” and argued that improving palliative care is the better option. As made evident in Canada alone, elder abuse is not the only concern when it comes to assisted death. 

READ: Woman in Canada seeks euthanasia because she can’t access medical treatment

Scholars recently used Canada as an example to warn the UK of the harm that pro-physician assisted suicide laws have. Both Canadian law professor Trudo Lemmons and Dr. Scott Kim of the University of Michigan told Parliament that Canada’s Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID) has led to increased discrimination of disabled individuals. 

Kim explained, “The law itself says this doesn’t have to be last resort, which means that a person could genuinely lack access to disability services, to outpatient psychiatric treatment, which is common in Canada. Those people would still qualify. And I think that’s a very disturbing societal norm.”

Lemmens added, “I would confirm that one of the concerns that people like me have who have supported actually the initial legislation is that originally there was a denial of the fact that we had cases of people who were asking for Maid [medical assistance in dying] because they lacked adequate support,” he said.

Though Luley argued citizens of the UK would be ‘happy’ to die by assisted death, a recent survey found that assisted death was not the freewill, happy choice that Dignitas claims it to be. British Parliament released the survey to assess the current needs and issues of those with disabilities and their carers who are adversely affected by an increased cost of living. More than 10,000 people responded to the survey, two-thirds of whom have disabilities.

The responses were revealing and heartbreaking. One person wrote, “I’m freezing, I’m hungry and I don’t receive the amount of care I need to live a dignified, equitable life. A shower is a treat for me now, that’s the stage I have got to.”

Another wrote, “I survived childhood cancer to become a disabled adult. I had so many hopes for my life but now each day I regret not dying of cancer. My life is not dignified.”

MP Marsh De Cordova stated that 93% of respondents have had to limit their energy use due to the cost of living and energy crisis, 76% have had to limit their use of transportation and 60% have had to limit their use of specialized equipment while more than half have had to reduce their use of medication. These contributing factors to the wish for death are solvable problems that would help improve the quality of life for disabled individuals. 

British disability rights activist Jane Campbel explained, “[Assisted suicide] is very scary to disabled people in this country. We depend on our doctors, on our caregivers, to give us help and support to live. To have faith in our lives because that helps us to have hope and enables us to encounter and overcome the barriers we have in our lives.”