With The Gravity It Deserves

Professor Kevin Yuill writes:

Looking at the headlines and the press releases, it might seem like the British public overwhelmingly backs assisted dying. Dignity in Dying informs us that 84 per cent of Brits are in favour of assisted dying for terminally ill adults. Humanists UK, which also supports assisted suicide, tells us that over 74 per cent of the public support legalising the practice.

This Friday, MPs will have a free vote on the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, which would legalise assisted suicide in England and Wales under certain circumstances. As such, there has been plenty of debate about what the public might want or not want when it comes to end-of-life care. And the moral power of supposed widespread support has been seized upon by proponents of the bill.

There are many reasons to doubt the wisdom of these polls, however. For starters, there is the question of where they come from. As it turns out, many of those that indicate heavy support for assisted dying were paid for by advocates like the well-funded Dignity in Dying.

Polls from other sources have come up with very different results. One carried out by Living and Dying Well, an organisation that opposes legalising assisted suicide, asked more in-depth questions and found much more ambivalent public attitudes. In that poll, 56 per cent of those who expressed an opinion (71 per cent of all those surveyed) support legalising assisted suicide in principle, but feel there are too many complicating factors to make it a practical and safe option to implement in Britain.

The Living and Dying Well poll also showed that only a small minority really care about legalising assisted suicide. When respondents were asked to rank the importance of 24 various issues, it came 23rd, ahead only of regional devolution. Just four per cent viewed it as a top priority.

That same poll also showed public support for assisted suicide comes with plenty of caveats. Nearly half (47 per cent) worried that, in places where it is already legal, people opt to die because they feel themselves to be a burden.

A poll commissioned by King’s College London (KCL) – and therefore ostensibly neutral – confirmed the ambivalence of the public. Results from last month revealed that ‘much of the public still have reservations about the risks of assisted dying, even if they are broadly supportive of its legalisation’. Although 63 per cent of people want this parliament to legalise assisted suicide, less than half want their MP to actually vote for the new bill.

The KCL poll also found that people are willing to shift their views when faced with new information. Fifty-five per cent said they would likely change their minds and oppose the policy if it turned out someone had been pressured into choosing an assisted death.

The problem is that many people are never confronted with this kind of challenging information. In the KCL poll, 85 per cent of assisted-suicide supporters said the fact that assisted dying could give people a less painful or distressing death is a very important reason for their support. Yet in Oregon, where assisted dying has been legal for almost 30 years, pain is not even in the top five reasons why patients actually opt to die. Despite what its proponents suggest, legalising assisted dying cannot eliminate pain in death. As one study indicates, in the Netherlands, where euthanasia and assisted suicide have been legal for decades, between 29 and 43 per cent of end-of-life patients experience unalleviated pain and distress in the last hours of life.

Worryingly, respondents don’t always even know what ‘assisted dying’ really means. Polls indicate that many think it either means the right to access hospice care (10 per cent) or the right to stop medical treatment (42 per cent) – rights that people already have. Perhaps if it were spelt out plainly that assisted dying actually means prescribing poison to facilitate suicide, much of the support might melt away.

Clearly, MPs should not rely on these polls, either to take the temperature of the nation or to help them make up their own minds on assisted dying. A majority of Britons might support assisted suicide in principle, but most also have serious concerns about the practicalities. And they are right to hold such concerns, given that Leadbeater’s bill is riddled with errors, contradictions and dangerous loopholes.

When MPs vote on the bill later this week, they will have to answer not to their party or their constituents, but to their own conscience. We can all hope they consider this life-or-death matter with the gravity it deserves.