Pros and cons of legalising assisted dying

A new assisted dying law for England and Wales could take up to four years to fully implement, raising concern among supporters that it may never pass.

The controversial Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, which would make it legal for people who are over 18 and terminally ill to receive assistance to end their life, passed a second reading in November after MPs were given a free vote.

Yesterday, Kim Leadbeater, the MP leading the bill, proposed extending the initial timeline for its implementation from two years to four. Her spokesperson said this was more of a "backstop" than a "target", but if it is delayed beyond the next election, it risks being "abandoned altogether", said Tom Gordon, a Liberal Democrat MP who sits on the Commons committee scrutinising the bill.

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The delay, said The Guardian, marks the "latest major change to the assisted dying proposals, which have proven deeply contentious in the Commons and beyond".

Pro: an end to suffering

Allowing patients to end their suffering is not only morally justified but also essential to upholding the right to personal and bodily autonomy, advocates argue.

A major parliamentary inquiry set up in 2023 to explore whether assisted dying should be legalised in the UK received tens of thousands of submissions from people facing "uncontrollable" pain and "unbearable suffering", which palliative care alone cannot fix, The Guardian reported.

No matter how good end-of-life care might be, the "tragic truth" is that it "cannot prevent some kinds of suffering", said TV presenter Esther Rantzen, who has stage four lung cancer and has long campaigned for assisted dying, in an open letter last year. She wants to help people avoid the "deep-rooted agony" at the end of life.

Con: losing legal protection

It is currently a criminal offence under the 1961 Suicide Act to help someone take their own life, punishable by up to 14 years in prison. Assisted dying is a general term that includes euthanasia and assisted suicide. Euthanasia is when a doctor ends a patient's life, while assisted suicide is when a patient ends their own life with a doctor's help.

Some people believe that legalising euthanasia would put too much power in the hands of doctors, who could abuse their position, or relatives.

The debate comes amid a "sharp rise in cases of euthanasia to end psychological suffering" in the Netherlands, which introduced the legislation in 2001, said The Times. The number of deaths under the legislation reached nearly 10,000 last year, which marks 5.8% of all deaths and includes a 60% increase in cases involving psychological suffering.

However, the UK bill excludes disability and mental illness as eligibility criteria. It sets out specific requirements for who is eligible to receive assistance, including the need to have the "mental capacity to make a choice" and that they are "expected to die within six months". Two independent doctors must make assessments before a high court judge makes a final ruling.

Pro: ending 'mercy killings'

According to Dignity in Dying, 44% of people would break the law and help a loved one to die, risking 14 years in prison.

In 2023 the Crown Prosecution Service updated its guidance on so-called mercy killings and suicide pacts to reflect that there is no public interest in prosecuting individuals who end the life of someone who has made "a voluntary, clear, settled and informed decision that they wished for their life to end".

Encouraging or assisting suicide is a crime that currently carries a maximum penalty of 14 years but prosecutions are "rare", said Humanists UK. Campaigners claim that UK police are also increasingly turning a blind eye to people travelling to other countries to assist loved ones to end their life.

Con: 'slippery slope'

Opponents argue that normalising euthanasia would be a move towards legalised murder.

They say that even with "watertight qualifying criteria and safeguards" the law will be "expanded in time and the restrictions loosened", said The Guardian. A "pressing concern for lawyers" is "successful human rights challenges" by people who were not granted assisted dying, inevitably softening the law in a way which wasn't initially intended by MPs.

In his role as the then archbishop of Canterbury, last year Justin Welby warned that the bill would set the country in a "dangerous" direction, leading to a "slippery slope". But Leadbeater has rejected this argument, saying "we have to get it right from the start with very clear criteria, safeguards and protections".

Pro: shifting opinion

There has been a significant shift in recent years among both the public and professional medical opinion regarding assisted dying for people with a terminal illness.

According to a November YouGov poll, 73% of Britons believe "in principle" that assisted dying should be permitted in the UK, while 13% do not. Only a minority are opposed to it "in principle and in practice", while 19% say they support the principle but do not believe it is "possible to create adequate laws to regulate it".

A 2020 survey by Dignity in Dying revealed opinion was also shifting among doctors, with 50% "in favour of law change on assisted dying" and 39% opposed.

Con: religious concerns

Many religions and religious people, especially Catholics, believe that life is the ultimate gift and that taking that away is usurping power that belongs to God only.

At his New Year's Day Mass in the Vatican this year, Pope Francis called on his followers to "respect the dignity of human life from conception to natural death", and a "firm commitment" to defend "the precious gift of life, life in the womb, the lives of children, the lives of the suffering, the poor, the elderly, the lonely and the dying".