Assisted suicide laws are ‘bad compassion’ and a danger to vulnerable people
The House of Parliament will vote on Labour MP Kim Leadbeater’s Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill on 29 November. The Bill proposes to legalise assisted suicide for terminally ill adults.
Assisted dying, which is state-sanctioned assisted suicide, is framed by its supporters as a compassionate act and a matter of ‘choice’. But the grim reality of assisted suicide is that, far from embracing the sick and dying, it tells them that they’d be better off dead, and the state is happy to oblige.
Pope Francis writes that: ‘Human compassion consists not in causing death, but in embracing the sick, in supporting them in their difficulties, in offering them affection, attention, and the means to alleviate suffering.’
That is real compassion, contrary to the claims of assisted suicide advocates who accuse their opponents of being uncaring. But their radical upturning of the foundational principle of medicine – to do no harm – must be scrutinised, not least because it undermines the safety of the people that they say they want to help.
Canada offers up a horrific example of where these laws lead: 13,241 Canadians were killed by Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) in 2022, an increase of 31.2% compared with the previous year. While the majority of these people were cancer patients, the most commonly cited reason for ‘choosing’ MAiD was not physical pain but an inability to engage in meaningful activities.
In the U.S. state of Oregon, 43% of people killed by assisted suicide in 2023 stated beforehand that they feared being a burden on loved ones, while 8% were worried about healthcare costs.
The idea that assisted suicide is a free choice devoid of external pressures is a dangerous illusion that has undoubtedly led to avoidable deaths. This is not compassion when people feel pressured into suicide after being let down by the state’s lack of investment in care and other life-saving provisions.
Take the example of Dan Quayle, a Canadian man from British Columbia who waited ten weeks for cancer treatment. Stuck in a chemotherapy backlog, he turned in desperation to assisted suicide, which was granted to him in just two days.
Even veterans suffering from PTSD have been recommended assisted suicide in Canada, where Saving Private Ryan has taken on another meaning. When such a deadly solution is proffered in one instance, it may be applied to other ‘problem’ people soon enough.
While Jesus offered comfort to the dying and the forlorn during his earthly ministry, he did not offer suicide as a cure for the pains of the terminally ill. We ought to follow his example, which is the message of the Church. The compassionate response to suffering should be to improve care. The Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC) urges all people to urgently lobby their respective MPs.
The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales also urges MPs to reject the Leadbeater Bill. The Government, it says, should invest in ‘the availability and accessibility of specialist palliative care across the country’. There is a clear reason why the vast majority of doctors who care for the dying in the UK are opposed to assisted suicide.
‘It hasn’t gone unnoticed that assisted dying is financially a cheaper solution than providing holistic care to those who are dying. We palliative medicine registrars strongly oppose this Bill.’ This open letter to Kim Leadbeater from doctors on the frontline of care is a warning to us all.
The only way to safeguard patients from the iniquitous ethic of assisted suicide is to reject it outright. We all have the potential to be threatened by such a law, now or in later life, and politicians must protect citizens from harm, including unwise laws advanced under the false guise of compassion.
As Pope Francis said in 2023: ‘Whether it is the law not to let the child grow in the mother’s womb or the law of euthanasia in disease and old age… I am not saying it is a faith thing, but it is a human thing: There is bad compassion.’
By Daniel Frampton, Editorial Officer at The Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC). https://twitter.com/HornOfRoland @HornOfRoland