Blindly supporting a change in the law on assisted dying would be downright dangerous, says DR AMY PROFITT

Facing a protracted death – or watching a loved one do so – is a physical and emotional roller coaster. 

The fear of what lies ahead can be all-consuming. So it’s perfectly understandable that many people in this position – including Dame Esther Rantzen (as well as, if opinion polls are to be believed, a large proportion of the British public) – believe a legalised system of assisted dying is long overdue.

And who would want to deny the terminally ill a ‘good’ death – pain-free, peaceful and at a time and location of their choosing?

But while many people seem to think they are voting for a Swiss-style scheme, based on the Dignitas clinic where more than 500 people from the UK have chosen to end their lives since it opened in 1998, there are still so many unknowns and questions over what a UK system would look like – and, in particular, what safeguards it would have.

So supporting it blindly is not just fundamentally flawed – but downright dangerous. Dignitas is a non-profit organisation largely separate from the Swiss healthcare ­system and has a robust ­vetting process before it grants access to its services.

This includes at least two face-to-face meetings with the clinic’s doctors, so they can be sure the patient meets their criteria. 

Clients have to prove they are of sound mind, submit medical reports showing their diagnosis and failed treatments and – in the case of mental illness – often ­provide an in-depth medical report by a psychiatrist ­supporting the request.

As things stand, there are few such details in the proposed UK system. Instead, doctors working for the NHS – the same doctors whose job it is to protect the most sick and vulnerable – would be charged with helping many take their own lives.

Yet none of us in the NHS is trained to spot whether someone is being coerced into ending their own life. Nor are we qualified to help those who want to end it all not because they are facing impending death but because they feel they are simply too much of a burden on society.

And where would the deed be done? In NHS hospitals, where lives are meant to be saved not ended ­prematurely? Or in hospices that currently do such a great job of making those final days and weeks as comfortable as ­possible? 

Assisted dying is not within a doctor’s duty of care. Worse still, evidence from parts of the world that have legalised it suggests there can be major repercussions.

For example, in Oregon, the US state that first sanctioned assisted dying in 1994, suicide rates in the general population have risen by 31 per cent since the law changed.

Why? Because it ‘normalised’ it – it made it more socially acceptable for people to end their own lives.

If we do go ahead with assisted dying, who should it be for? In ­Belgium, children have the legal right to request it. They need parental ­consent but it’s still available.

And don’t be fooled that it’s always a death devoid of any suffering. Last year, one ­Oregon patient took five days to die after being given drugs to take.

It’s not known what went wrong but it’s not unheard of for people to vomit the drugs, suffer ­seizures or even wake up again hours afterwards.

My further concern is pumping money into assisted dying will mean that the NHS cuts back on cash for palliative care. 

New Zealand used to be ranked third in the world for the quality of its end-of-life care. After it introduced assisted dying in 2019, it dropped to 11th.Every year in the UK, around 180,000 people die without access to good-quality palliative care, instead suffering agonising, traumatic deaths. 

This should be our priority.Better to focus on improving NHS palliative care rather than introducing assisted dying. Yet that doesn’t even seem to be on the agenda.

As told to Pat Hagan.