Looking at today’s report by the Commission on Assisted Dying, the first thing that jumps out is just how comprehensive it is. They reach the conclusion that assisted suicide should be legalised — and they’ve done so after hundreds of hours of consultation with various groups and experts, as well as sifting through the evidence from countries where various forms of assisted dying are allowed. This is no rush job.
Among the stand-out points from its 415 pages is that the current situation — under which anyone encouraging or assisting another person’s suicide can be punished by 14 years in prison — is both ‘very distressing for families and unclear for health and social care staff’ and ‘a deeply challenging burden on police and prosecutors’. It also highlights the role that legalising assisted dying can play in relieving suffering, even when that option is not taken (‘by the knowledge that they can end their life at a time of their own choosing’).
But it’s also mindful of the dangers posed by legalisation, such as that of coercion. That’s why it only advocates legalising assisted suicide (in which the person is provided with the means to end their life, but must do it themselves) and not voluntary euthanasia (where someone else ends the person’s life at their request); the idea being that, when they literally takes their life into their own hands, the patient is more ‘in control of the final act’. And, to help ensure that the decision is truly voluntary, the Commission says it should only be taken after ‘the assessment, advice, support and independent judgements of two independent doctors, with support from other health and social care professionals where necessary.’ It also calls for the practice to be limited to people with a terminal illness (which it defines as ‘an advanced, progressive, incurable condition that is likely to lead to the patient’s death within the next 12 months’), in order to ‘send a clear message that disabled people’s lives are valued equally.’
As you’d expect, the report and its recommendations have stirred up a variety of responses — and we’ll have more on Coffee House later. Dignity in Dying has welcomed it as ‘a comprehensive and robust evaluation of the evidence’, while Care Not Killing has branded it ‘biased and flawed’. Meanwhile, the British Humanist Association says it is ‘ethically inconsistent’ to recommend legalising assisted suicide but not voluntary euthanasia.
But what do the public think? Judging by the polls, they’d broadly agree with this report. 75 per cent of respondents to a ComRes survey in June reckoned that a medical professional should be allowed to help a ‘person with a painful illness or condition from which they will die’ who ‘wants to commit suicide but is physically incapable of doing so’. With that in mind, you wonder whether the government will turn the Commission’s recommendations into legislation — regardless of the storm it would provoke.
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