Member

In so many cases, it is the circumstances of their lives which lead so many people in other jurisdictions to seek assisted suicide and euthanasia, not illness. People talk of the right to choose to die, but they do not talk of the effect of being crushed by poverty and isolation, especially if it is accompanied, as it is in so many cases of terminal illness, by disability: people think that there is no way forward for them. The Bill could lead to the rich and comfortable rejecting assisted dying and opting for palliative care in all its forms and living contentedly and normally without suffering for much longer than the six-month prognosis, while the poor and the marginalised die. It could lead to those with serious mental health problems choosing assisted dying at a moment of suicidal ideation.