The pros and cons of legalising euthanasia

Demonstrations calling for the decriminalisation of assisted dying are to take place in central London today to coincide with a debate among MPs in Westminster.

The Commons debate – which will not be followed by a vote – was triggered after a petition backed by campaigner Esther Rantzen gained more than 200,000 signatures.

Rantzen, who has stage four lung cancer, revealed last year that she had joined the assisted dying clinic Dignitas, in Switzerland, but that under current UK law her family could be at risk of prosecution if they helped her travel there to end her life.

"The Great British Bake Off" judge Prue Leith, actor Susan Hampshire and rights campaigner Peter Tatchell are all expected to attend the protests calling for a change in the law. A previous bill in favour of assisted dying was defeated in the Commons by 330 votes to 118 in 2015.

Also known as euthanasia, assisted dying is a controversial issue for legislatures worldwide, with widely cited arguments both for and against a practice that is legal in some countries while totally taboo in others.

It is currently banned in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland – although not a specific criminal offence in Scotland – and carries a maximum prison sentence of 14 years.

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 last year 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.

Paul Lamb, a paralysed former builder from Leeds who died in June 2021, had lost his legal case to challenge UK laws on assisted dying seven months earlier.

"I cannot understand, in a civilised society like ours, why I should be forced to suffer when millions of people around the world already have the choice I asked for," he said in November 2020.

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.

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

Rita Marker, executive director of the International Task Force on Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide in the US, has argued: "Euthanasia and assisted suicide are not about the right to die. They are about the right to kill."

The UK's anti-euthanasia Care Not Killing alliance said that the law is also in place to protect the vulnerable "from being pressured into ending their lives".

Making her case against any law change, Ilora Finlay, a crossbench peer and palliative care physician, told the parliamentary inquiry that legalising euthanasia in Britain could result in between 5,800 and 58,000 assisted deaths a year, based on extrapolated data from countries where it is already legal. "Such demand would divert an already stretched workforce of NHS clinicians," she said.

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 2022 the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said it was considering revising its stance on so-called mercy killings so that defendants are less likely to face criminal charges.

"We are not decriminalising any offence," Max Hill, director of public prosecutions and head of the CPS, told the i news site, but in offences "born solely out of compassion", justice can sometimes "be achieved by not prosecuting".

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.

This "slippery slope is real", said James Mildred of Care (Christian Action Research and Education), which campaigns against assisted suicide. In a 2018 article in The Economist, Mildred cited "a steady increase year on year in the number of people being killed or helped to commit suicide by their doctors" in countries that have legalised assisted suicide, as the rules are loosened over time.

"Critics say this is happening in Canada," said New Scientist, "with the criteria for assisted dying having expanded once already and a further change planned for next year." Canada, which introduced Medical Assistance in Dying, or MAID, in 2016, has seen the number of people choosing to end their life rise steadily ever since, with MAID deaths comprising 4.1% of all deaths in 2022.

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.

Polling for The Guardian last August found 65% of people in the UK believe it should become legal for a doctor to assist an adult of sound mind with less than six months to live to voluntarily end their own life, subject to High Court confirmation.

Dignity in Dying claims this number is even higher, and also that 54% of GPs are supportive or neutral to a law change on assisted dying.

Con: religious concerns

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

In 2020, the Vatican reiterated the Roman Catholic Church's opposition to assisted suicide and euthanasia, describing them as "intrinsically evil" acts "in every situation or circumstance", The New York Times reported.