{"id":333787,"date":"2025-07-05T16:47:35","date_gmt":"2025-07-05T21:47:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=333787"},"modified":"2025-07-04T13:18:51","modified_gmt":"2025-07-04T18:18:51","slug":"hospice-uk-blank-check-assisted-dying-vulnerable","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/hospice-uk-blank-check-assisted-dying-vulnerable\/","title":{"rendered":"Hospice UK chief: ‘Blank check’ for ‘assisted dying’ could make it the default for the vulnerable"},"content":{"rendered":"
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(Right to Life UK<\/a>) A senior palliative care boss has warned that patients could be pushed towards an assisted death if assisted suicide services end up better funded than hospices.<\/p>\n

Following the Third Reading of the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill<\/a>, Toby Porter, the chief executive of Hospice UK, which represents more than 200 hospices, said<\/a> Keir Starmer\u2019s insistence that he would find the money to fund an assisted suicide service could leave hospices underfunded and this would be a \u201cbetrayal of the population\u201d.<\/p>\n

Porter, who gave evidence<\/a> to the assisted suicide Bill Committee in January, said<\/a> \u201cYou could very easily see that everybody\u2019s energy goes into [assisted suicide] over the next few years\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Government\u2019s impact assessment estimated that the number of people opting for an assisted death was likely to be under 1 percent based on comparable jurisdictions.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt would be very quixotic if all our energies went into how this 1 percent will die and making sure they have the choice that they want and the MPs have perfectly correctly decided they should have, but we did nothing about the all of the choices that should exist within palliative care, for the 99 per cent, if you like\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t but note a moral question mark over the assumption we all make \u2013 until we hear otherwise \u2013 that an assisted dying service will be fully state funded, whereas currently the palliative care provided by hospices is currently only 30 percent state funded and 70 percent funded by charity\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf palliative care gets no investment and all of the attention goes in [to assisted suicide] that will mean the needs of the 1 per cent will be prioritised over the needs of the 99 per cent\u201d.<\/p>\n

A moral and practical disgrace<\/strong><\/p>\n

Porter previously raised similar concerns when giving evidence to the assisted suicide Bill Committee. He said<\/a> \u201can outcome in which someone chose an assisted death because of a real or imagined fear that they could not get pain relief or other symptom alleviation, or because their family would not get support through their illness, would clearly be a moral and practical disgrace for any country\u201d.<\/p>\n

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Toby Porter, CEO of Hospice UK says that if someone chose assisted suicide because of the real or imagined fear that they couldn’t get the pain relief or symptom alleviation they needed, this would be a “moral and practical disgrace”. pic.twitter.com\/myWLwV4RHd<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Right To Life UK (@RightToLifeUK) January 29, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n