Assisted suicide in UK might cause ‘a major exodus of healthcare professionals’

LEICESTER, United Kingdom – Legalizing assisted suicide in England and Wales “is a further major erosion of the soul and conscience of medicine,” according to a leading pro-life medical doctor.

Last week, Labour MP Kim Leadbeater’s Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill was approved by the UK Parliament by a vote of 330 in favor to 275 against.

The Bill passing is only the first stage in the House of Commons, and it will be months before it can be passed into law.

Dr. Calum Miller, a medical doctor and a Research Fellow at the University of Oxford specializing in bioethics, said legalizing assisted suicide “would of course have serious repercussions for doctors who decide not to take part at all, since the bill contains a right to refer onwards for a discussion about suicide.”

“This could see a major exodus of healthcare professionals from medicine, which would devastate our already stretched healthcare system,” he told Crux.

Euthanasia and assisted suicide are currently illegal under English, Welsh, and Northern Irish law and is considered manslaughter or murder. In Scotland, there is no specific legislation, but people can be prosecuted for murder if they are involved.

The bill initiated by Leadbeater allows terminally ill adults aged 18 or over the right to request medically assisted suicide.

The Association for Palliative Medicine of Great Britain and Ireland (APM) issued a statement noting the vast majority of its members opposed “assisted dying” and the organization opposed the way the Leadbeater Bill was proposed.

The APM cited concerns about the protection of vulnerable, frail, elderly, disabled and terminally ill people; the lack of adequately funded and equally available specialist palliative care services in all areas in the UK; and concerns about trust and the impact on doctor-patient relationships.

Miller told Crux palliative care doctors are “most aware that when adequate palliative care access is available, it is very rare for someone to have intractable physical symptoms.”

“They also know how common it is that patients near the end of their life could be subject to overt or covert pressure to die from various sources, not least their families, and realize that legalizing suicide would push many of their patients into succumbing to such pressure,” he said.

The full interview with Miller is below:

Crux: Why did assisted suicide suddenly become an issue in the UK?

Miller: Assisted suicide has been on the table for a long time in the UK, with serious attempts to legalize it every few years. These are mostly legislative attempts now, after the Supreme Court decided not to grant a right to die in 2014.

The reason it came up again this time was partly just luck: Kim Leadbeater came top of the ballot for Private Members’ Bill and decided to put forward a bill on this topic – though it was also supported by the Prime Minister who was determined to grant parliamentary time to debate and vote on it.

If signed into law, how will assisted suicide affect the medical profession, especially for doctors?

Some people have said this would be crossing the Rubicon for medicine, but from a Hippocratic point of view this happened in the 20th century with the legalization of abortion. This is a further major erosion of the soul and conscience of medicine, and would of course have serious repercussions for doctors who decide not to take part at all, since the bill contains a right to refer onwards for a discussion about suicide. This could see a major exodus of healthcare professionals from medicine, which would devastate our already stretched healthcare system.

Some of the strongest opposition to assisted suicide comes from the palliative care sector. Why is this the case?

Palliative care doctors are less susceptible to misinformation than most other people, and are most aware that when adequate palliative care access is available, it is very rare for someone to have intractable physical symptoms. They also know how common it is that patients near the end of their life could be subject to overt or covert pressure to die from various sources, not least their families, and realize that legalizing suicide would push many of their patients into succumbing to such pressure.

How is assisted suicide related to the other “life issues” in the UK – such as abortion and gender identity?

There is not a huge amount of overlap between the different culture war issues in the UK. Of course, there are some socially conservative groups and Christian groups which are active on all of the issues, but they have generally been less visible on euthanasia and transgenderism, in part because there are such strong secular movements opposing these.

With euthanasia there is very strong opposition from disability rights groups, doctors, and socialists, while on transgenderism there is very strong opposition from feminists. This has been a refreshing difference from many countries where all of these come as a package deal and there is no real room for free thought or genuine debate.

Can the UK still say No to the Leadbeater Bill?

Yes, it is still possible for the bill to be defeated.

The Second Reading passed by 330 votes to 275, which is a significant gap but not insuperable. We need 28 of those votes to change – or some abstainers to vote no – and 36 have already indicated that they voted to pass the bill only in order to allow for more debate.

So it is an uphill battle but we do still have a chance!

Follow Charles Collins on X: @CharlesinRome