Care Not Killing welcomes comments from PM saying fix palliative care before considering assisted dying

Andy Burnham - Official Portrait

Source: Care Not Killing

Campaign group Care Not Killing has welcomed the comments from the new Prime Minister Andy Burnham, saying that we should fix palliative care before considering assisted dying.

Speaking at a London care home earlier today, he was asked about the assisted dying debate and commented, "personally I think there is something that needs to happen first and that's the fixing of the funding for palliative care and social care".

The Prime Minister went on to say that having the debate about assisted dying was "very challenging" when the systems are in crisis.

Dr Gordon Macdonald commented: "The Prime Minister is absolutely right. Trying to force through a deeply controversial bill, legalising assisted suicide, when palliative and social care are broken, would put pressure on the elderly, vulnerable and disabled people to end their lives prematurely, exactly as we have seen in other jurisdictions that have embraced assisted dying in some form.

"In US states of Oregon and Washington, which are often cited by those championing changing the law as the model for so-called 'assisted dying', a majority of those ending their lives do so because they fear being a burden on their families or carers. At the same time because of health care rationing, we have seen those suffering from cancer refused potentially life-saving and life-extending treatments, while being offered the lethal cocktails of drugs with which to kill themselves. While in Canada in 2021, 1,700 Canadians who were euthanised cited loneliness as a reason for their desire to end their lives"

Dr Macdonald continued: "The draft legislation, due to be voted on in September, is deeply flawed and dangerous. It will fundamentally alter health and palliative care, requiring a rewrite of the founding NHS charter, lacks adequate safeguards to protect the vulnerable, fails protect doctors and nurses who do not want to be involved, will see money taken out of palliative care and has been sold to the public as a way to end suffering when we know from places like Oregon, those who take the death row drugs may suffer long and agonising death from a pulmonary oedema - where their lungs slowly fill up with bodily fluid and they drown in their own secretions. MPs should listen to the Prime Minister and vote down this horrendous bill, not legalise the killing of the sick and elderly. We stand ready to work with the new Government and any political party that wants to fix palliative and social care; as we have repeatedly said, we need more care, not killing."

Care Not Killing is a UK-based alliance bringing together over 40 organisations - human rights and disability rights organisations, health care and palliative care groups, faith-based organisations groups - and thousands of concerned individuals.

We have three key aims:

to promote more and better palliative care;
to ensure that existing laws against euthanasia and assisted suicide are not weakened or repealed;
to inform public opinion further against any weakening of the law.

If you would like to talk with someone about issues raised in this article, the Samaritans are available 24 hours a day. Call free on 116 123 or visit: www.samaritans.org

Read more about Care Not Killing: https://carenotkilling.org.uk/