The Anscombe Centre has published a new paper analysing evidence from multiple jurisdictions that have introduced "assisted dying" and which shows that the practise has a detrimental effect on palliative care provision, in contradiction to previous claims by the UK government.
It comes ahead of the Second Reading debate in the House of Commons over Kim Leadbeater MP’s Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill at the end of this month, and as the surrounding debate on euthanasia and assisted dying/suicide (collectively referred to as "EAS") intensifies in the UK.
The new paper by the centre’s director, Professor David Albert Jones, serves as a response to the 2024 "<a href="https://committees.parliament.uk/publications/43582/documents/216484/default/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color">Report on Assisted Dying / Assisted Suicide</mark></a>”, and its conclusions, by the House of Commons Health and Social Care Committee.
In this report, the committee said that they “did not see any indications of palliative and end-of-life care deteriorating in quality or provision following the introduction of AD [assisted dying] / AS [assisted suicide]; indeed the introduction of AD / AS has been linked with an improvement in palliative care in several jurisdictions".
But in his paper, "<a href="https://bioethics.org.uk/media/t1bf0icr/evidence-of-harm-assessing-the-impact-of-assisted-dying-assisted-suicide-on-palliative-care-prof-david-albert-jones.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color">Evidence of Harm – Assessing the Impact of Assisted Dying / Assisted Suicide on Palliative Care</mark></a>”, Professor Jones points out that this conclusion is based "not on a comprehensive review of the literature on palliative care and the effects of EAS on that sector of healthcare, but on selective evidence that the Committee received from respondents which was variously irrelevant, outdated or speculative", notes the Anscombe Centre.
Jones explains: "The House of Commons Select Committee did not see evidence to confirm the fears voiced by palliative care associations about a change in the law.
"However, a fuller scrutiny, including of more recent data, fully vindicates those concerns. What is often called ‘assisted dying’ – that is, euthanasia or assisted suicide – can have a seriously adverse impact on that which is true assistance in dying: palliative care.
“In the United Kingdom, where we pioneered the hospice movement, this is world-leading. It would be extreme folly to jeopardise what has been an international beacon of excellence through insufficient consideration of the danger of proposed legislation.”
In his paper, Jones offers a review of “better and more recent evidence” that illustrates, he argues, the following:
These realities are “profoundly important for MPs’ consideration as they deliberate on whether to introduce physician involvement in enabling the suicide of terminally-ill patients into UK law and medical practice,” says the Anscombe Centre.
Established in 1977, the Anscombe Bioethics Centre is an Oxford-based research institute serving the Catholic Church in the UK and Ireland, and which promotes the study of Catholic bioethics in service of the common good.
<a href="https://catholicherald.co.uk/podcast/our-right-to-be-protected-from-suicide-with-prof-david-albert-jones/?swcfpc=1"><mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color"><em><strong>RELATED: "Merely Catholic" podcast - Our right to be protected from suicide, with Prof David Albert Jones</strong></em></mark></a>
<em>Photo: screenshot from Anscombe Centre report and <a href="https://bioethics.org.uk/media/t1bf0icr/evidence-of-harm-assessing-the-impact-of-assisted-dying-assisted-suicide-on-palliative-care-prof-david-albert-jones.pdf"><mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color">bioethics.org.uk</mark></a>.</em>
