Majority support change to assisted dying law – survey

The majority of people support legislating assisted dying in England, according to a poll.

But there are certain caveats linked to the support – including the implementation of safeguards to ensure the service could not be abused, researchers found.

The “most favoured circumstance” for assisted dying would be if the service was limited to adults who have a terminal illness with an estimated six months of life left, according work led by the Nuffield Council on Bioethics (NCOB).

Researchers said that a person’s view on assisted dying is shaped by the level of confidence they have in effective safeguarding and the degree to which they have been confronted with their own or a loved one’s death.

Academics said that public opinion on the matter is the “missing piece of evidence” surrounding the controversial debate on assisted dying, as they published three separate pieces of work examining people’s views on the topic.

Two of these were surveys of 2,000 adults across England.

Researchers found that public awareness of assisted dying rose throughout the year – from 59% in February to 82% in September.

The September survey found that seven in 10 (70%) people in England support a change in the law on assisted dying, and 14% oppose a change.

The reasons people gave their support were that: “someone terminally ill or without quality of life should be allowed to end their life”; “that people should not have to suffer” and “that people should have a right to choose”.

And the reasons people gave to object a change in the law included “religious beliefs”; “the belief that assisted dying is wrong” and “the belief that life is sacred”.

Some 70% of those surveyed said that assisted dying should be available when someone has a terminal illness and is expected to die within six months.

But this fell to 64% in a scenario where someone has a terminal illness with an estimated 12 months to live.

The NCOB said that people who have been confronted with the imminence of a loved one’s death tend to express stronger support for assisted dying.

Support for the concept of assisted dying is strongest among men, those aged 55-74, white people, those with no religious beliefs and those living outside of London.

The latest survey found that 56% of the public would support assisted dying for a person who has a physical medical condition that is not terminal – but is expected to cause intolerable suffering, but more than a third (35%) do not.

The NCOB said concerns were raised that there is no agreed definition of “intolerable suffering”.

Meanwhile 57% said they would support assisted dying being possible for a child with a terminal condition – some 13 percentage points lower than recorded for adults.

Safeguarding controls are of “upmost importance” to the public, the NCOB said, with people indicating that any service must ensure someone wishing to pursue an assisted death has the capacity to make their own choice and that they have not been pressured or coerced.

Just over two-thirds (68%) of those surveyed agree that if assisted dying remains illegal in England, the act of helping someone to travel to a foreign clinic such as Dignitas should be decriminalised.

There is also support for health professionals to be able to advise on how to seek an assisted death at a foreign clinic without fear of being prosecuted, according to the NCOB report.

“These findings reveal where there is public consensus on how a legalised assisted dying service in England should operate, were it to become a reality – having effective and robust safeguarding controls that will enable a strict eligibility criteria of terminally ill adults to be applied is clearly of upmost importance to the public,” said Professor Anne Kerr, chair of the Nuffield Council on Bioethics’ Assisted Dying Advisory Board.

“As the political debate on assisted dying gathers pace, we hope these timely insights will help to ensure those making the decision have the robust and trustworthy evidence they need to participate in a well-informed and nuanced conversation.”

An assisted dying Bill is to be debated by MPs at the end of the month.

Only terminally ill adults with less than six months to live who have a settled wish to end their lives would be eligible under the proposed law, which is being put forward by Labour MP Kim Leadbeater.

Ms Leadbeater said that her bill has “three layers of scrutiny” in the form of sign-off by two doctors and a High Court judge.