The poll found that while a majority backed the principle of being able to choose euthanasia or assisted suicide for oneself, more than four in ten members of the public (43 per cent) said it could incentivise health professionals to encourage some patients to take their lives given the pressures on the NHS, reports the Daily Telegraph.
Conducted by Whitestone Insight for Living and Dying Well, a non-profit think tank that “researches and analyses the evidence surrounding the end-of-life debate”, the poll of 2,000 people also found the public feared, by 56 per cent to 27 per cent, that a change in the law on assisted suicide could lead to a culture where suicide became more normalised, echoing concerns long raised by the Catholic Church in the UK.
In response to proposed Scottish legislation to facilitate assisted suicide, the Scottish Bishops recently spoke out about how such a move would undermine efforts to prevent people from killing themselves, and that the proposed Bill suggests that sometimes suicide “is an appropriate response to an individual’s circumstances, worries and anxieties”.
They said assisted suicide undermines suicide prevention, the provision of palliative care, trust in doctors and puts pressure on vulnerable people to end their lives prematurely.
“If Scotland establishes the provision of death on demand and this becomes normal practice, how will that not become a cultural expectation for the vulnerable, including the elderly, disabled, and lonely?” the bishops caution.
They also highlighted the “chilling” economic incentives that could result in assisted suicide becoming the preferred course of action over providing palliative care to the most vulnerable in society.
They note the proposed Bill itself admits that assisted suicide has an economic advantage in terms of being cheaper than measures such as providing palliative care.
Commenting on the findings of the Whitestone Insight poll, the Daily Telegraph’s Madeline Grant writes that people are right to be concerned that the elderly may face pressure to end their lives to reduce pressure on the NHS.
“Britain arguably presents something of a ‘perfect storm’ in this regard; between a toxic cultural relationship with the NHS, an ageing population in a country of rampant generational inequality, and many ‘cash-poor yet asset-rich’ households whose ‘inheritance’ is tied up in the family home,” Grant says. “Tragically, many older and disabled people already feel they are a burden.”
She highlights how a “perception that the NHS is sacrosanct” has been shown to warp views around which lives are worth protecting, citing previous polls that have shown “mass support” for restricting care for “misbehaving” groups like smokers or the obese.
It illustrates, she argues, “a pernicious culture of not wanting to bother the health service, even if we need it”.
She also notes how that “sacrosanct” perception led to unnecessary loss of life during the Covid-19 pandemic, when “ministers mobilised these attitudes to encourage lockdown compliance”.
This triggered a spike in deaths at care homes and also in people’s
normal homes as individuals shunned hospitals in the short term, as well
as resulted in long-term societal changes and problems – including
so-called “excess deaths” through the likes of increased drug use and
suicide – that many say will be playing out for years to come.
The
Whitestone Insight poll was released ahead of a new attempt in the
House of Lords to change the law on assisted suicide. Recently elected
British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer became the first leader of the
UK government who has stated his personal commitment to changing the law
on assisted suicide.