Most citizens fear they will be ‘forced into assisted dying’: survey

Latest polling has shown widespread concerns about plans to legalize assisted suicide ahead of Friday’s parliamentary debate on changing the law.

When asked about the statement: “Before Parliament considers the introduction of assisted dying, there should be a Royal Commission to examine the future of palliative and end-of-life care” – seven out of 10 respondents agreed.

The survey of more than 5,000 British adults also showed skepticism about the promised protections, with a majority (59%) saying it was “impossible to create safeguards that would always prevent people being forced into assisted dying”. Only a quarter (24%) disagreed.

Get our latest news for FREE

Sign up to receive daily/weekly emails of top stories (and special offers!) from The Christian Post. Be the first to find out.

Labor MP Kim Leadbeater’s Terminally Ill (End of Life) Bill would require applications for assisted suicide to be signed by two doctors and a High Court judge. Candidates would have to be terminally ill and have the mental capacity to make the decision.

A survey conducted by Focaldata on behalf of the Care Not Killing coalition shows that three-quarters of respondents (73%) support changing the law. However, when presented with 10 arguments against assisted suicide, the percentage of people who did not change their mind to oppose assisted suicide or answer “I don’t know” dropped to just 11%.

It also revealed confusion about the meaning of the term “assisted dying” – one in six people (17%) incorrectly believed it included hospice care, and about half (52%) believed it included “life-prolonging treatments.” .

Concerns were also raised about people’s exposure to risk – more than half (58%) said it was “inevitable that some of the most vulnerable people in society, such as older people, people with disabilities or those suffering from mental illness, will feel forced to to benefit from death care.”

Over half (56%) believed that if assisted suicide were legalised, the NHS would likely encourage some people to commit assisted suicide, while a similar proportion (57%) agreed that the lower cost of this care compared to palliative care would put pressure on the NHS to offer This.

Dr Gordon Macdonald, chief executive of Care Not Killing, said the findings showed the British public “want MPs to fix the NHS, properly fund palliative and social care, rather than introduce dangerous and ideological policies that would put pressure on the vulnerable, the elderly and disabled people to prematurely end their lives.”

“This important new poll debunks the argument so often made by advocates of state-assisted killings that the public supports changing the law. “However, this support is based on a superficial question that is based on the public’s understandable lack of knowledge about what is happening in the small number of countries that have legalized assisted suicide or euthanasia,” he said.

“When citizens hear that some countries have extended assisted dying laws to children under 12; “Some people feel pressured to pursue assisted suicide or euthanasia because they feel they are a burden to loved ones, and as in the UK a clear majority of palliative care doctors oppose changing the law, support is deteriorating dramatically.”

He added: “The message couldn’t be clearer: we need care, not killing.”

This article was originally published at Christian today