The Right To Die Well - Dying Well Should Be A Human Right

Parliament is once again poised to debate the need for a law to allow assisted suicide. Based on legislation drawn up by Lord Falconer of Thoroton, politicians will be given a free vote on this sensitive and emotive issue. This week Norman Lamb, the Liberal Democrat Care Minister, is one of several high profile politicians to state his support for the change, while David Cameron and other members of his cabinet have confirmed they will vote against the move. Having recently co- authored a global report on end of life care (Dying Healed: Transforming End of Life Care through Innovation) for the World Innovation Summit for Health (WISH) held in Qatar in December 2013, I thought it would be timely to explore this issue.

The current situation in the UK is that euthanasia (in which one party takes action to end the life of a second party, at the request of the second party) is regarded as either manslaughter or murder and is punishable by law with a maximum penalty of up to life imprisonment; and assisted suicide (where physicians, or others, provide the means for patients to end their own lives) is illegal under the terms of the Suicide Act (1961), punishable by up to 14 years' imprisonment. However, grey areas have emerged, and the Director of Public Prosecutions in 2010 indicated that anyone acting with compassion on the will of a dying person was unlikely to face charges.

Euthanasia is an issue that divides most cultures. Surveys in the UK and US show that public support for euthanasia has hovered between 60 and 80 per cent since the mid- 1970s. With similar levels of support emerging for physician assisted suicide. A report on the 2005 British Social Attitude Survey shows that people make clear distinctions between the acceptability of assisted dying in different circumstances - 80 per cent of respondents agreed that the law should allow voluntary euthanasia to be carried out by a doctor for someone with a painful, incurable, and terminal condition - but less than 50 per cent agreed for cases where the illness is painful, but not terminal.

Yet, over 90 per cent of palliative care doctors are opposed to assisted suicide in the UK. This is largely because hospice and palliative care professionals see what they do as quite distinct from assisted suicide or euthanasia. The danger is that unless the public gains a full understanding of palliative care, and have confidence that they will have access to good quality, pain free care, euthanasia...