Jan 182023
As a family doctor soon to have been in my practice for 20 years, I can only recall a single conversation with a fearful and terminally ill patient who asked whether ‘I could help to speed things along’. After further discussion it became clear his motivation was to spare emotional distress for his family of a long decline death and not wanting to be a burden. Thankfully he was reassured by my explanation of the palliative care services and support available to him and his family when needed. I strongly oppose the concept of assisted dying because there is a great risk that the patient’s decision is shaped by many external factors including the sense of guilt and anticipation of suffering. Modern palliative care strives to prevent suffering and ensure a peaceful death and I do not recall any of the patients I have care for over the last two decades experiencing a bad death or going without support.
The wider political context is also worth consideration. Right wing governments as we have had in the United kingdom for the last forty years have widened inequality and removed social safety nets by defunding public services. The value for human life has been cheapened and policies open to abuse. Lord Prem Sikka in December 2022 outlined the devastating impact of over a decade of austerity and the cost of human life in terms of excess death totalling around 500,000 made up largely of the most most vulnerable to government policies on euthanasia. Introducing legalised assisted dying normalises the concept and risks tempting the sick into an act previously not available through guilt for carers or financial hardship. The introduction of the welfare state and the National Health Service in 1948 saw a steep decline in suicide rates of elderly and sick people who now had hope their suffering could be ameliorated.
Our fight should be for better funding and access social services, restoration of benefit payments and high-quality public services but not legal changes capable of being used by the same sociopathic political class who erode quality of life, impoverish and finally nudge people into opting for the escape of early state assisted death.
Dr Bob Gill
MRCGP, DRCOG, DFFP, PGCert
I can;t agree Bob although your campaigning work on privatisation I totally support. Ask a striking nurse who works at a Hospice if Palliative Care does what it claims to. It is the religious elite in the House of Lords who stop any progress on assisted dying.