The UK Government cannot remain neutral on the legalisation of assisted suicide – it must defend the lives of the vulnerable by rejecting calls for a change in the law.

That was the message that SPUC’s Lives Worth Living campaign sent to the House of Commons Health and Social Care Committee, which concluded its consultation on the introduction of assisted suicide in England and Wales.

Lives Worth Living is dedicated to highlighting the dangers posed by allowing doctors to prescribe lethal drugs to their patients. In its submission, SPUC presented the committee with evidence from around the world that assisted suicide cannot be controlled.

In several countries its legalisation has led to the introduction of euthanasia as well – just one aspect of the “slippery slope” once such laws are imposed.

Assisted suicide exposed

In Belgium and Holland, disabled infants and dementia patients are given lethal injections in the belief that their lives are not worth living. Under 2021 guidance from the Royal Dutch Medical Association, doctors are deemed the best judge of whether a dementia patient is “suffering unbearably” – one of the legal requirements for euthanasia – and they don’t have to ask the patient for permission.

The Government of Quebec in Canada has indicated it may support a similar policy. Quebec now has the highest rate of death by euthanasia and assisted suicide in the world — 5.1 percent of all deaths — higher than the Netherlands and Belgium at 4.8 and 3.2 percent respectively.

And it is in Canada that the most shocking evidence is now to be found. Increasing numbers of Canadians with disabilities and chronic conditions are resorting to assisted suicide because of a lack of social care.

Several veterans of the Canadian armed forces have spoken about being repeatedly offered assisted suicide instead of medical treatment. On 24 October 2022, Mark Meincke told the Commons Standing Committee on Veterans Affairs how a man seeking help for neurological injuries was advised that, if he had suicidal thoughts, “medical assistance in dying” was “better than blowing your brains out against the wall”.

Christine Gauthier, another member of the Canadian armed forces, was left dependent on a wheelchair after she damaged her spine while training on an obstacle course. Last December, she told the Canadian Parliament that after five years of asking for a wheelchair ramp to be installed at her home, she expressed her frustration to a caseworker. Instead of being given help with fitting a ramp, Gauthier was offered assistance to end her life.

Duty to keep citizens safe

Commenting on SPUC’s Lives Worth Living submission, Alithea Williams, SPUC’s Campaigns Manager, said: “Since assisted suicide was introduced in Canada in 2016, it has taken the lives of 10,064 people in a country of just 38 million people. It is undeniable that a change in our laws would also put vulnerable people at great risk. 

“When the frail, the ill or the elderly are told that they can end their lives, it conveys a perception that they might be better off dead. Even if this impression is unintentional, it generates pressure for them to choose death.

“All governments have a duty to keep their citizens safe. That is especially true of the most vulnerable in society. Legalising assisted suicide would represent a serious threat to everyone but especially the weakest among us.

“Whatever the Health and Social Care Committee finally recommends, the Government should concentrate on providing better access to palliative care for the terminally ill. They should learn from the experience of countries like Canada and never allow the introduction of assisted suicide.”