Image – Shutterstock: Welsh Parliament, Cardiff
More than 250 doctors and senior healthcare professionals in Wales have issued a stark warning to politicians, urging them to block the assisted suicide Bill currently progressing through Westminster. In an unprecedented open letter, the clinicians say the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill is “deeply flawed”, poses “unacceptable risks” to patient safety, and threatens the integrity of devolved healthcare in Wales.
The letter is signed by a formidable group of medical voices, including Dame Deidre Hine, former Chief Medical Officer for Wales, alongside palliative care consultants, psychiatrists, and frontline NHS clinicians. Their message is clear: Wales’s failures in end-of-life care cannot be remedied by legalising assisted suicide.
Doctors warn that palliative and hospice care in Wales is already under severe strain. Around a quarter of the population cannot access a hospice bed at all, leaving many without real choice at the end of life. Introducing a state-sponsored suicide service in that context, they argue, risks steering vulnerable patients towards death because proper care is unavailable.
The clinicians also challenge the Bill’s core assumptions. They say its definition of terminal illness fails to account for misdiagnosis and uncertainty, noting bluntly that accurate prognostication is impossible. They warn that patients could become eligible for lethal drugs simply because they feel like a burden, or because of gaps in care. Coercion, they add, is often subtle, difficult to detect, and can come from family members or authority figures.
Psychiatrists have raised particular concerns about the misuse of the Mental Capacity Act, which they stress was never designed to assess suicidality. The letter also highlights a dangerous contradiction between the Bill and Wales’s own Suicide Prevention and Self-Harm Delivery Plan. As Dr Stuart Porter warned, the proposed role for psychiatrists on the so-called panel is not supported by the Royal College of Psychiatrists.
These warnings land as the Senedd prepares to consider a Legislative Consent Motion. When Westminster legislates in an area that has been devolved, such as health, convention requires it to seek the consent of the Senedd. This process, set out under Standing Order 29, allows Welsh politicians to decide whether provisions of a UK Bill should apply in Wales.
While the consent motion is not legally binding, it carries major constitutional weight. If consent is refused, assisted suicide could still become legal in Wales in theory, but it would not be delivered by the Welsh NHS. That could leave patients facing a patchwork system, private provision, or travel across the border.
SPUC’s Executive Director, Michael Robinson, says, “The doctors’ letter is explicit that this is not a symbolic vote. It is about the detailed operation of a dangerous law, not a general principle. They point to inadequate oversight, noting that the panel does not have to see the patient, the coroner need not review the death, and there is no meaningful mechanism for appeal or independent scrutiny. Their closing plea is stark. At a time when Wales cannot guarantee hospice beds or comprehensive counselling, the Senedd is being asked whether it should consent to a law that provides lethal drugs instead. For hundreds of Welsh clinicians, the answer is an emphatic no. We at SPUC agree.”
Click here to read the full letter.
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