Poll shows older people fear assisted suicide law

Older people are considerably more likely than younger people to think the elderly and the disabled would feel their lives would be “less valued” if a law was passed to legalise assisted suicide on the National Health Service, a new opinion poll has found.

The Assisted Suicide Survey, conducted by ComRes on behalf of ALERT, the anti-euthanasia pressure group, asked members of the public the following question: “If assisted suicide were made available on the NHS, do you think that this would make elderly or disabled people feel that their lives were less or more valued?”

A total of 37 per cent of those polled answered “less valued” compared to 33 per cent who answered “more valued”.

But the percentage that replied “less valued” grows to 43 per cent for people in the 55-64 age bracket compared to just 29 per cent of this age group who answer “more valued”.

The gulf widens even further for people in the 65+ bracket, with nearly twice as many respondents - 45 per cent - answering they would be “less valued” if assisted suicide was to be made available on the NHS, compared to the 24 per cent who expressed the opposing view.

Overall, 8 per cent answered “no difference” to the question, without prompting, and 21 per cent answered “don’t know”.

A spokesman for ALERT said: “The results of this opinion poll are significant for two reasons. First, they suggest that, in spite of claims to the contrary, there is no general support for the legalisation of assisted suicide and the British public have concerns about it.

“Secondly, they suggest that one of the groups of people most vulnerable to the abuses that would inevitably follow a change in the law – the elderly - are among the people who fear the legalisation of assisted suicide the most.

“The reasons for such fears are obvious and well-grounded: if assisted suicide was ever to become law the most vulnerable members of society would soon be made to feel that their lives are not worth living and pressure would be applied upon them to end their lives prematurely.

“It is for their sake and for the sake of the health of society in general, that all future attempts to change the law to permit assisted suicide must be vigorously resisted.”

For further information see: www.alertuk.org