Most citizens fear being ‘coerced into assisted dying’ in the UK
Over 5000 British citizens took part in the survey, which revealed that half of them had not been aware that assisted suicide would not offer life-prolonging treatment.
Focaldata on behalf of the Care Not Killing coalition ran the survey. 73% of people supported a change to the law originally. When they were offered ten arguments against assisted suicide, those who did not oppose euthanasia or answered “don’t know” dropped to 11%. The results also revealed how confused some people had been: 17% assumed it included hospice care and 52% thought it involved “life-prolonging treatment.”
The majority – 59% – of the interviewees thought it was “impossible to create safeguards that would always prevent people from being coerced into assisted dying.” Only 24% disagreed with the statement.
58% expressed their concerns that it was “inevitable that some of the most vulnerable people in society, such as the elderly, people with disabilities or mental health conditions would feel pressured into an assisted death.”
56% thought that the NHS would pressurise certain people into assisted suicide. 7 people out of 10 agreed that “Before parliament considers introducing assisted dying, there should be a Royal Commission to examine the future of palliative and end of life care.”
MPs are due to debate and vote on the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill on the 29th of November. The criteria are as follows:
- They must be resident of England and Wales and be registered with a GP for at least 12 months
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They must have the mental capacity to make the choice and be deemed to have expressed a clear, settled and informed wish, free from coercion or pressure
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They must be over 18 and expected to die within six months
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They must make two separate declarations, witnessed and signed, about their wish to die
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Two independent doctors must be satisfied the person is eligible – and there must be at least seven days between the doctors’ assessments
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A High Court judge must hear from at least one of the doctors and can also question the dying person, or anyone else they consider appropriate. There must be a further 14 days after the judge has made the ruling (although this can be shortened to 48 hours in some circumstances)
According to Dr. Gordon Macdonald, CEO of Care Not Killing, British people “want parliamentarians to fix the NHS, properly funding palliative and social care, not introduce a dangerous and ideological policy that would pressure the vulnerable, the elderly and disabled people into ending their lives prematurely. This major new poll blows apart the arguments so often advanced by advocates of state-assisted killing that the public backs changing the law. But this support is based on a superficial question that relies on the public’s understandable lack of knowledge about what happens in the small number of countries that have legalised assisted suicide or euthanasia. When members of the public hear that some countries have extended laws on assisted dying to include children under 12; that some people have felt pressure to opt for assisted suicide or euthanasia because they feel they are a burden on loved ones and how, in the U.K., a clear majority of palliative care doctors oppose changing the law, support drastically deteriorates. The message could not be clearer, we need care, not killing.”
Source: https://www.christianpost.com
