Assisted dying: Putting legalised death into the hands of politicians is dangerous - GP Taylor

As God was silent, I concluded that assisted dying might possibly be a kind and caring way forward for those in pain and in an incurable situation.

As countries around the world adopted policies of assisted dying, I have become more and more sceptical and I am now totally against any proposals to allow the state to legislate in favour of it.

As Keir Starmer insists that a Labour government will put such a law before parliament, I am very concerned as to what the possible outcome will be. Putting legalised death into the hands of politicians is a dangerous thing. On one hand, they will not allow the execution of murderers and child killers, but now propose to allow terminally ill people to exit life when they wish.

A recent poll showed an overwhelming majority of people in Britain support legalising assisted dying. The poll conducted by Opinium on behalf of the organisation Dignity in Dying, (a pro-assisted suicide group) shows most of the support in every constituency of England, Scotland and Wales. More than 10,000 people were asked if they support making it legal for a person to seek assisted dying in the UK, also known as assisted suicide. A total of 75 per cent of people said yes and just 14 per cent opposed.

That is a massive amount of people in favour, but sadly, I don’t know if they fully understand the ramifications of such a law and the possible abuse of its powers.

At the moment, assisted suicide is already legal in countries such as Switzerland, Belgium, the Netherlands, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and several American states.

It is estimated that assisted dying will become the leading cause of death in Canada in the next ten years. Since 2016, there have been nearly 45,000 cases of assisted suicide in Canada, with the figure rising each year.

Chilling cases under Canadian Medical Aid in Dying legislation demonstrate the dangers of doctor-assisted suicide.

A woman was offered assisted death when she became depressed. So were army veterans suffering PTSD and others who were disabled. Some of the people who died appeared to have been coerced into making the decision.

What worried me even more were the comments of CARE for Scotland National Director Stuart Weir.

He said, “in 2015, Ms Sturgeon highlighted the insufficiency of safeguards in legislation allowing physician-assisted suicide. It has been confirmed by the tragic experience of Canada, where vulnerable citizens have been coerced into opting for assisted death after being unable to access care and support.” Mr Weir went on to say, “Assisted suicide is not something a truly compassionate country should countenance.”

I fully agree. The Canadian experiment in assisted dying shows us that the state can broaden the criteria to cover those who are costing the country a lot of money in care fees.

A retired corporal, Christine Gauthier, who is paraplegic and competed for Canada at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Paralympics and the Invictus Games, was offered assisted suicide. Gauthier had been fighting for five years to have Veterans Affairs provide her with a wheelchair ramp. They wouldn’t provide the ramp, but they would give her a way to end her life.

It is immoral and outrageous that a disabled person should be offered death before care and be seen as a financial burden.

Yet, in our new post covid, dystopian reality, anything is possible. It is not a conspiracy theory to think that the criteria for assisted dying could be widened to rid the world of those described as ‘useless eaters’ who put a financial burden on the system.

Canada is already showing the world that this can quickly happen. How long will it be in this country before assisted dying is abused due to a government diktat insisting that the costly elderly or those in long term care should be offered a way out for the greater good?

Japanese politician, Taro Aso, said in 2013 that the elderly should be allowed to "hurry up and die" to relieve pressure on the state to pay for their medical care. I believe that this attitude pervades many in the political classes, who see the old and infirm as a costly nuisance.

GP Taylor is a writer and broadcaster who lives in Yorkshire.