Experts expose ‘dehumanising’ assisted suicide proposals

Allowing doctors to help vulnerable patients kill themselves would be an assault on human dignity, experts on the issue have warned.

In recent days palliative care experts and ethicists have spoken out against those seeking to liberalise the law on assisted suicide in Britain.

A Bill to remove protections for vulnerable people is currently before the Scottish Parliament, and Westminster’s Health and Social Care Select Committee has called for evidence on assisted suicide in England and Wales.

Writing in The Times on behalf of the Scottish Council on Human Bioethics, Katie Breckenridge challenged arguments from supporters of MSP Liam McArthur’s Bill that it would lift ‘the burden of care’ from the family, “benefit the economy” by not ‘wasting resources’ on nursing the dying, and increase organs available for transplantation.