Hospice UK has issued a stark warning: many hospices are already “on the brink,” with surging costs, rising demand, and financial uncertainty threatening core services just as debates about assisted dying gain momentum. Two in every five hospices are planning cutbacks this year even before assisted dying becomes law.
These revelations are deeply troubling. The push to legalise assisted dying may seem, to some, to offer compassion and autonomy for those facing terminal illness. Yet when hospices, the bedrock of end-of-life care , are underfunded and facing closure or cutbacks, the real victims are often those with the greatest need: the frail, the terminally ill, and those without voices.
Hospices currently spend about £1.2 billion annually on direct patient care, yet less than half (around £485 million) is supplied by government funding. The rest depends on charitable donations, a model that is fragile in economic hardship. Without clarity in how assisted suicide would be integrated into the health system, especially as policy, oversight, funding, location, and drug usage remain unspecified, there’s a risk that resources will shift away from palliative care toward end-of-life death facilitation.
For those who believe in the intrinsic dignity of every human life, legalising assisted dying is not merely a matter of choice but of societal priorities. If the law passes without robust safeguards, clear funding paths, and strong protection for those who object (including many hospices that, on ethical, moral, or religious grounds, may not wish to offer assisted suicide), the result could be catastrophic under-provision of care for those who wish only to live out their natural death, not to end it by medical means.
Moreover, there is a broader danger: normalisation of ending life as a solution to suffering, rather than investing in better pain management, psychological support, community care and palliative services. For many families, the comfort, presence, dignity and spiritual care offered by hospices are irreplaceable.
Clear legislated protections should safeguard conscience rights, ensure that assisted dying would not become a de facto expected or default path, and preserve the role of palliative care as the first priority.
Assisted dying debates often focus on personal autonomy. But autonomy is hollow if those who are terminally ill are left without sufficient care, eased suffering, or comfort. For a truly compassionate society, supporting life must come first, not enabling death in the name of choice, when choice is crippled by neglect of those in desperate need.
