Image Source: UK Parliament
The newly appointed chair of Jersey’s Assisted Dying Assurance and Delivery Committee previously warned that “assisted suicide does harm others” and could leave seriously ill and disabled people feeling they have a “duty” to die.
Dr Sarah Wollaston was appointed by the Jersey Government earlier this year to chair the body responsible for overseeing the implementation and delivery of the island’s assisted dying service.
Wollaston, a former doctor who worked in hospitals and primary care for 24 years before serving as MP for Totnes between 2010 and 2019. She gained notoriety for leaving the Conservative party to join Change UK in protest of Brexit. She has described herself as “honoured” to take the position.
However, in a 2012 article for the Guardian, Wollaston set out serious objections to assisted suicide which appear striking in light of her new role.
“I have no faith banner to raise,” she wrote, adding that there were conditions under which she could imagine wanting to end her own life. Nevertheless, she concluded: “I don’t believe I should have a right to make a doctor complicit in that decision.”
Wollaston argued that individual autonomy should be limited when exercising it causes harm.
“Assisted suicide does harm others: it harms the doctors who take on the responsibility for killing their patients,” she wrote.
She also warned about the consequences of normalising assisted suicide, questioning how easily society could move from accepting lethal drugs in supposedly exceptional circumstances to regarding continued life as the questionable choice.
“There is also an unacceptable risk that a right to die could lead to the seriously ill or severely disabled feeling that they had a ‘duty’ to die rather than burden their family or carers”, Wollaston warned.
Fourteen years later, Wollaston will now oversee the establishment of precisely the kind of state-sanctioned suicide system about which she expressed those concerns.
Announcing her appointment, she said she wanted Jersey’s new service to be “compassionate and lawful,” with properly trained and supported staff.
SPUC’s CEO John Deighan said: “Dr Wollaston’s previous comments are true and they raise an obvious question as Jersey prepares to introduce assisted dying: does Wollaston still believe that assisted suicide harms doctors, threatens disabled and seriously ill people, and risks fundamentally changing society’s understanding of whose lives are worth continuing? Is she complicit in something she believes will damage society?”
