Lord Philip Hunt, a Labour peer, has said that legalising assisted suicide will put pressure on vulnerable people to end their lives.

Writing in The Telegraph, Lord Hunt described how his mother’s own end-of-life care, following a grave illness, prompted him to reflect on the effect assisted suicide would have in the United Kingdom. 

Lord Hunt’s comments address Baroness Meacher’s Assisted Dying Bill, which will return to the Lords for a second reading later this month.

Lord Hunt said: “I will be urging friends to reject a Bill that, nonetheless kindly meant, would expose susceptible sufferers to both experiencing stress from relations to die earlier than their time or to feeling that they’re a burden and consequently requesting an assisted demise.”

Reflecting on his own mother’s passing, Lord Hunt said: “I deeply recognize the significance of compassionate and complete end-of-life care, which tends rigorously to the altering wants of sufferers and their households.

“As a bereaved son and witness to a painful end-of-life course of, I do perceive the complexity of such instances and generally the sheer agony of seeing a cherished one residing a life the place struggling outweighs high quality.”

SPUC comment

A SPUC spokesperson said: “SPUC is grateful to Lord Hunt for raising awareness towards the looming threat of assisted suicide.

“We know that in countries where assisted suicide is legal, many vulnerable people, not wishing to be a ‘burden’, feel pressured into taking their own lives.

“Indeed, 34% of Canadians killed by assisted suicide said they feared being a burden on family and carers.

“Similarly, in the U.S. state of Oregon, 54.2% of people killed by assisted suicide said that one reason to end their lives was not wanting to be a burden on family, friends and caregivers.

“We cannot allow this to happen in the United Kingdom.”

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