More than six in 10 members of the public (62 per cent), believe the assisted dying bill, due to be debated this week is “too complex and polarised” to be rushed through. Strikingly this includes well over half (57 per cent) of those in favour of changing the law, finds a major new poll. By contrast fewer than a quarter (23 per cent) say it is not.
The survey for Care Not Killing was conducted by Whitestone Insight, a British Polling Council member. It also found that almost four in 10 of those questioned are worried that if the law is changed one of their relatives could feel pressured into ending their lives because they fear being a burden.
Asked if they agreed with the following statement: “I would worry that one of my own relatives would feel or would have felt pressure to end their lives”, 38 per cent said yes. The same proportion also agreed with the statement: “At least one of my own relative(s) has voiced concern that they do not want to be a burden to others when they get old and infirm.” This rose to 43 per cent among women and 44 per cent of those who support changing the law.
Dr Gordon Macdonald, CEO of Care Not Killing, commented: “This poll yet again highlights that the more the public hear about assisted suicide and euthanasia, sometimes called assisted dying, the more they have grave concerns about changing the law. Indeed, by a margin of almost three to one the public say the MPs must not rush the legislation, while four in 10 worry members of their family could feel pressured into ending their lives prematurely.”
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And in a fresh blow to the draft bill, more members of the public agreed that, “…the right solution would be to improve end-of-life care and social care rather than offer patients assisted suicide/dying”, by 42 per cent to 30 per cent.
These findings of the poll chime with comments made by the Labour Health Secretary, Wes Streeting, who said he would vote against the bill, he does not believe palliative care in the UK is currently sufficient to safely implement assisted dying and he would “…hate for people to opt for assisted dying because they think they’re saving someone somewhere money, whether that’s relatives or the NHS…”.
The survey also confirms the need for a national death literacy strategy, as recommended by the Health and Social Care Committee Report (Recommendation 5), published earlier this year. Disturbingly, one quarter (25 per cent) of those surveyed believed assisted suicide/dying included “giving people who the dying the right to stop life-prolonging treatment” and other respondents believing hospice care is part of “assisted dying”. Two-thirds (65 per cent) described assisted suicide, although this fell to just over a half (56 per cent) of 18–24-year-olds, six per cent were unclear and one per cent preferred not to say.
Interestingly among the reasons to support a change, 80 per cent said it would give people a pain-free death, three-quarters (76 per cent) thought “people should have a right to say how and when they die”, just over four in 10 (43 per cent) thought it was “kinder to families of the terminally ill” and three in 10 (30 per cent) said it would “ease pressure on the NHS and social care”.
Dr Gordon Macdonald concluded: “These results are clear. MPs should focus on mending the UK’s broken palliative care and social care system instead of rushing to bring forward legislation that would lead to vulnerable people ending their lives prematurely with the help of the state.”
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