Image – Unsplash: Sasun Bughdaryanh
Over 1,000 doctors have written to MPs to urge them to vote against Kim Leadbeater’s assisted suicide bill. “This bill will widen inequalities, it provides inadequate safeguards and, in our collective view, is simply not safe”, the letter stated.
The letter slammed Leadbeater’s Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill as a “real threat to both patients and the medical workforce”.
Leadbeater’s Bill seeks to legalise assisted suicide in England and Wales for terminally ill adults given less than six months to live.
Sighed by four doctors with OBEs – and two MBEs and one CBE – the letter was also supported by Sir John Burn, a noted cancer researcher, and Sir Shakeel Qureshi who was knighted for his contribution to paediatric cardiology.
Other signatories include Baroness Finlay, a professor of palliative medicine and member of the House of Lords, and former deputy chief medical officer for Scotland Professor Aileen Keel.
One concern highlighted by the letter was patients being pressured to take their own lives. “Vulnerable patients are at risk of coercion with women, victims of domestic abuse, and the elderly at particular risk”, the letter stated.
The letter listed various concerns about assisted suicide, including doctors’ alarm at the prospect of patients feeling pressured to die because they believe they are a burden.
“People who struggle to pay for heating or care or wish to preserve their assets for their children are at high risk of choosing to die if the option is available and the alternative is more difficult.”
There was also worry that doctors would “feel pressurised when dealing with patient requests for assisted deaths, meaning that doctors may end up having involvement despite it being against their principles, because they want to help their patients”.
Regarding a six-month terminal diagnosis, the medics stated that “research demonstrates that doctors get prognosis wrong around 40% of the time…
“As such, patients may end up choosing an assisted death and losing what could have been happy and fulfilling months or years of life.”
The letter also noted that “a close relative may know nothing until they get a call to arrange collection of their relative’s body”.
An assisted suicide bill recently approved by France’s lower house would, if ratified, send family members to prison for obstructing a loved one’s decision to die.
MPs are set to debate Leadbeater’s Bill on 13 June, with a crucial vote expected to take place on 20 June.
SPUC is urging all concerned citizens to lobby their MPs to warn against the mortal threat posed by assisted suicide before it is too late.
If you’re reading this and haven’t yet donated to SPUC, please consider helping now. Thank You!
