Assisted Dying: Implications for Palliative Care

In the second episode of this series on the potential impact of any Assisted Dying Bill (Episode 1 here), Dr Liz Evans and Amanda Hunter are joined by Dr Carol Davis (appearing in the transcript as Carol Bowden), a recently retired Consultant in Palliative Medicine, and Angelina Ireland, the Executive Director of the Delta Hospice Society in Canada, to discuss Assisted Dying and its profound implications for Palliative Care across the UK if introduced.
The panel discuss the danger to the public and society of introducing assisted dying into an already imploding healthcare system in the UK, as Angelina Ireland shares stories of the terrifying realities of euthanasia in Canada.

The UK’s Palliative Care and NHS Crisis
Bypassing Scrutiny: After the previous Leadbetter Assisted Dying Bill ran out of time due to extensive House of Lords amendments, sponsors are attempting to return the bill to Parliament with a new, identical Private Member’s Bill, and threatening to force it through without Lords’ approval, by an unprecedented use of the Parliament Acts.
A Broken NHS: Assisted Suicide is being pushed forward against the backdrop of an NHS in crisis, which currently faces a 7-million-person waiting list, including over 1 million terminally ill individuals waiting for appointments.
Hospice Underfunding: Palliative care is facing a severe funding crisis. In the last year alone, 380 UK hospice beds have closed, community specialist nurse visits dropped by 150,000, and two-thirds of hospices are operating in a financial deficit.
Impact on the Working Class: Amanda Hunter emphasises that this legislation poses the greatest threat to the working class, who completely rely on the NHS and cannot simply buy private treatment or care like the middle class can.
Palliative Care vs. Assisted Dying: Common Misconceptions
Public Confusion: Surveys show significant public misunderstanding. Less than half of the public correctly recognise that assisted dying means administering lethal drugs with the deliberate intent to cause death, with many confusing it with normal hospice care of the dying in alleviating symptoms, or stopping life-sustaining treatment.
The Goal of Palliative Care: Palliative care is holistic and is aimed at helping a person live as well as possible until they die Along with psychological and spiritual support it usesthe lowest possible doses of medication and non-drug measures to ease symptoms and distress.
The Goal of Assisted Dying: Assisted dying utilises high, lethal doses of a toxic drug cocktail with the explicit and immediate intent to end the patient’s life.
The Warning from Canada: A Dystopian Reality
The Slippery Slope: Angelina Ireland shares Canada’s harrowing trajectory with Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID) since it was legalised in 2016. Originally introduced strictly for terminally ill patients, the criteria quickly loosened to target vulnerable populations, including the poor, the old, the disabled, and the homeless.
State Expropriation of Assets: When the Delta Hospice Society refused to participate in or host MAID on its premises, due to its commitment to traditional palliative principles and conscientious objection to euthanasia, the Canadian government stripped its funding, cancelled its land lease, and seized its privately fundraised $8 million facility without a single penny of compensation.
Hospices as Sanctuaries; Angelina reminded us that the word hospice means sanctuary and that vulnerable patients who are at the end of life must be protected from the threat of MAID by being able to access hospices that do not allow MAID on their premises.
Erosion of Trust: The normalisation of MAID by medical associations has severely damaged the sacred trust between doctors and patients, fostering widespread fear of hospitals and the healthcare system.

Final Thoughts
The panel warned the UK in the strongest terms against opening Pandora’s box by passing this deeply flawed and unsafe bill. The true, compassionate solution to end-of-life suffering is not to introduce state-sanctioned killing into healthcare, but to protect the legacy of medicine, by putting in adequate funding to provide high-quality specialist palliative care to everyone.

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