A survey published by the Association of Palliative Medicine (APM) has found that doctors are very “concerned” that an overt focus on “traumatic” and “negative” patient cases is being used to manipulate the British public into supporting assisted suicide.

People are being “scared” into supporting assisted suicide, the APM has warned this week.

Rather than being presented with a balanced view, particularly that of “good palliative care and good deaths”, assisted suicide advocates have been “generating fear”, many palliative care professionals believe.

In total, the APM survey consulted almost 300 of its members, of whom 87% stated that there was not adequate coverage of “good deaths” in the UK.

One respondent said: “I wish there would be a lot more publicity and promotion about all positive experiences of death and dying that occur across the country.

“Most of the time the bad ones hit the news and overshadow all the good work that’s carried out by palliative care teams.”

78% of APM respondents work full-time in palliative care. 65% have NHS contracts.

“Grossly misleading”

Dr Amy Proffitt, chairman of the APM, stated that the survey underlined the point that palliative care doctors believe coverage of end-of-life care to be “grossly misleading”.

“Stories about good deaths, available treatments and how to access end-of-life care are largely sacrificed in favour of those that focus on negative outcomes, which unfortunately are scaring vulnerable patients”, said Dr Proffitt.

“This is then compounded by failing to ask why these issues occurred. For example, was the patient able to access all the services they needed? For any clinician, this is the obvious first question, because we know that around one in four people who would benefit from palliative care do not receive it.”

Two assisted suicide bills in the UK

Two assisted suicide bills are currently being considered in the UK: The Assisted Dying Bill, introduced to the House of Lords by Baroness Meacher, as reported by SPUC, and the Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill, introduced by Liberal Democrat MSP Liam McArthur.

The latter bill, vehemently opposed by SPUC and its supporters, underwent a consultation last year. The bill could be before Holyrood by the summer.

In 2021, 1,689 doctors – opposing Baroness Meacher’s Bill “for the sake of us all, and for future generations” – wrote to Health Secretary Sajid Javid, stating that they “would not take patients’ lives – even if they asked us to”.

SPUC is calling on supporters to keep lobbying MPs to make it clear that no assisted suicide bill should be given any time in the House of Commons

APM survey “cannot be ignored”

SPUC’s Michael Robinson, Executive Director (Public Affairs & Legal Services), said: “Palliative care professionals have first-hand experience caring for the terminally ill. Their opinions and observations carry great weight and cannot be ignored.

“As this damning APM survey shows, SPUC’s coverage and pushback against assisted suicide are needed more than ever before.

“We must not underestimate the radical transformation of medicine and society that assisted suicide bills will impose. Nor should we underrate the ‘grossly misleading’ coverage that we and others are up against in opposing such dangerous legislation.

“‘For the sake of us all’, we should not turn wonderful palliative care doctors into executioners. These irresponsible bills not only endanger the lives of vulnerable people – but they also threaten the very foundation of society and the human rights on which it is based.”