{"id":320826,"date":"2024-10-27T13:53:03","date_gmt":"2024-10-27T18:53:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=320826"},"modified":"2025-06-19T23:57:32","modified_gmt":"2025-06-20T04:57:32","slug":"experts-warn-cost-healthcare-uk-assisted-suicide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/experts-warn-cost-healthcare-uk-assisted-suicide\/","title":{"rendered":"Experts warn that cost savings will be put above healthcare if UK legalizes assisted suicide"},"content":{"rendered":"
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(Right to Life UK<\/a>) Palliative care doctors are warning that assisted suicide will be seen as \u201ccheaper\u201d than caring for people who are terminally ill and are calling for greater investment in palliative care, rather than introducing assisted suicide.<\/p>\n

In a letter to Labour MP Kim Leadbeater expressing that they \u201cstrongly oppose\u201d her\u00a0Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill<\/a>, a group of 24 palliative care doctors\u00a0wrote<\/a>, \u201cIt hasn\u2019t gone unnoticed that assisted dying is financially a cheaper solution than providing holistic care to those who are dying\u201d.<\/p>\n

The doctors also stated that the Government should be putting resources into palliative care instead of assisted suicide,\u00a0writing<\/a>\u00a0\u201cThousands of people dedicate their lives to walking beside people and their families facing death. Those dying need\u00a0properly resourced care<\/a>\u201d.<\/p>\n

A survey of palliative care doctors who are members of the Association for Palliative Medicine found that 82% oppose the introduction of assisted suicide. The results of the Association for Palliative Medicine\u00a0survey<\/a>\u00a0have been mirrored in a more recent\u00a0survey<\/a>\u00a0of doctors by the British Medical Association, which found that 83% of palliative care doctors oppose a change in the law to introduce assisted suicide, while only 6% supported such a change.<\/p>\n

Cutbacks on cash for palliative care<\/strong><\/p>\n

Dr Matthew Dor\u00e9, the honorary secretary of the Association for Palliative Medicine, underlined the lack of Government funding and the palliative care sector being largely reliant on charitable donations.<\/p>\n

He\u00a0said<\/a>\u00a0that laws \u201care more than rules \u2013 they send social messages. The social message being sent here is that, essentially, assisted dying, removing yourself from the picture, is what the state wants, and leaving palliative care to charity. The NHS is supposed to be \u2018cradle to grave\u2019, not \u2018cradle to very old\u2019\u201d.<\/p>\n

READ: Canadian health authorities reportedly \u2018destroying palliative care\u2019 in favor of assisted suicide<\/em><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

These worries have been echoed by Dr Amy Proffitt, Deputy Medical Director at St Christopher\u2019s Hospice and Honorary Consultant at Kings College Hospital, who shared her concerns<\/a>\u00a0in September that \u201cpumping money into assisted dying will mean that the NHS cuts back on cash for palliative care\u201d. Dr Proffitt emphasised the lack of resources and attention being put into palliative care,\u00a0saying<\/a>\u00a0\u201cBetter to focus on improving NHS palliative care rather than introducing assisted dying. Yet that doesn\u2019t even seem to be on the agenda\u201d.<\/p>\n

Their concerns appear to have been confirmed by the decision of Health Secretary Wes Streeting to vote against Leadbeater\u2019s Bill.<\/p>\n

An unnamed Labour MP said \u201cWes said that palliative care isn\u2019t good enough, then added he hadn\u2019t intended to get into the discussion about assisted dying, but told us his view\u201d. Another MP said that the Health Secretary had been \u201cexplicit\u201d that he would vote against Leadbeater\u2019s assisted suicide Bill, saying that the emphasis should be on palliative care.<\/p>\n

Worrying cost-saving proposals<\/strong><\/p>\n

The dubious cost-saving benefits of assisted suicide have been discussed in various jurisdictions, such as the notorious 2020 Canadian report \u2018Cost estimate for Bill C-7, Medical Assistance in Dying\u2019, which\u00a0estimated<\/a>\u00a0a $149 million saving in healthcare costs from euthanasia and assisted suicide in Canada in 2021.<\/p>\n

In the 2020 report\u00a0Counting the cost of denying assisted dying<\/em>,<\/a>\u00a0Scottish academics David Shaw and Alec Morton proposed a worrying argument that legalising assisted suicide and euthanasia in the UK would provide significant financial savings, well into the millions. The money saved on potential healthcare costs, they suggested, could then be used to fund other treatments or \u201ccould be spent addressing other moral challenges faced by the health system\u201d.<\/p>\n

The cost-saving argument was also previously proposed in Guernsey. In 2023, Government accounts revealed that Guernsey has a\u00a0\u00a3135 million deficit<\/a>. Towards the end of August last year, Lester Queripel, a Deputy in the States of Guernsey, suggested that savings could be made from ending the lives of Guernseymen through assisted suicide. \u201cMany people don\u2019t want to keep on living and I think we need to put a figure on that\u201d,\u00a0he declared<\/a>.<\/p>\n

People feeling like a financial burden was also highlighted as a good thing earlier this year by Matthew Parris, former MP and Times columnist. He wrote that he would \u201cwelcome\u201d the social and cultural pressure \u201con the terminally ill to hasten their own deaths so as \u2018not to be a burden\u2019 on others or themselves\u201d.<\/p>\n

He stated that he does not apologise for referring to \u201chuman beings as units\u201d\u00a0and<\/a>\u00a0\u201cFor a society as much as for an individual, self-preservation must shine a harsh beam on to the balance between input and output\u201d.<\/p>\n

He also stated that\u00a0questions<\/a>\u00a0about finance, such as \u201cHow much is all this costing relatives and the health service? How much of a burden are we placing on those who love us?\u201d would become \u201ccommon practice\u201d and that that would be a good thing. Andrew Selous MP\u00a0said<\/a>\u00a0he was \u201cdeeply shocked\u201d by the article.<\/p>\n

Spokesperson for Right To Life UK, Catherine Robinson, said \u201cPalliative care doctors have underlined yet more problems with Leadbeater\u2019s dangerous assisted suicide Bill. They correctly highlight the woeful lack of investment into palliative care, as well as a genuine danger that assisted suicide will be viewed as a cheaper solution than high-quality palliative and hospice care, which is what people at the end of life really need. The Health Secretary has confirmed he will vote against the Bill,\u00a0saying\u00a0<\/a>\u2018the focus should be on palliative care\u2019\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s time for the Government to listen to the palliative care experts and Health Secretary on this matter, and to put resources into palliative care rather than assisted suicide\u201d.<\/p>\n

Editor’s Note: This article was published at Right to Life UK<\/a> and is reprinted here with permission.<\/em><\/p>\n

Urge Walmart, Costco, Kroger, and other major chains to resist pressure to dispense the abortion pill<\/i><\/b><\/i><\/b><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(Right to Life UK) Palliative care doctors are warning that assisted suicide will be seen as \u201ccheaper\u201d than caring for people who are terminally ill and are calling for greater investment in palliative care, rather than introducing assisted suicide. In a letter to Labour MP Kim Leadbeater expressing that they \u201cstrongly oppose\u201d her\u00a0Terminally Ill Adults […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":669,"featured_media":306899,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false},"categories":[7077],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nExperts warn that cost savings will be put above healthcare if UK legalizes assisted suicide<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"It's been argued that legalizing assisted suicide\/euthanasia in the UK would provide significant financial savings, well into the millions.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/righttolife.org.uk\/news\/assisted-suicide-will-be-seen-as-cheaper-than-palliative-care-doctors-warn\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta 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