If you are a healthcare professional in the UK, you can add your name below the letter
We write with great concern regarding the introduction of a Bill to legalise doctor-assisted suicide. The NHS is broken, with health and social care in disarray. Palliative care is woefully underfunded and many lack access to specialist provision.[1] The thought of assisted suicide being introduced and managed safely at such a time is remarkably out of touch with the gravity of the current mental health crisis and pressures on staff.
It is impossible for any Government to draft assisted suicide laws which include protection from coercion and from future expansion. Canada has clearly demonstrated that safeguards can be eroded in a matter of just five years; it has been roundly criticised for introducing euthanasia for those who are disabled[2] and plans for the mentally ill have been paused because of international concern.[3]
The shift from preserving life to taking life is enormous and should not be minimised. The prohibition of killing is present in all societies due to the immeasurable worth and inherent dignity of every human life.[4] The prohibition of killing is the safeguard. The current law is the protection for the vulnerable.
Any change would threaten society’s ability to safeguard vulnerable patients from abuse; it would undermine the trust the public places in physicians; and it would send a clear message to our frail, elderly and disabled patients about the value that society places on them as people.
Far from one person’s decision affecting no one else, it affects us all. Some patients may never consider assisted suicide unless it was suggested to them. Nearly half those who choose assisted suicide in Oregon cite ‘feeling a burden’.[5]
As healthcare professionals, we have a legal duty of care for the safety and wellbeing of our patients. We, the undersigned, will never take our patients’ lives – even at their request. But for the sake of us all, and for future generations, we ask do not rush in to hasty legislation but instead fund excellent palliative care.
Director, Our Duty of Care, Glasgow
Consultant Nephrologist, London
If you are a healthcare professional in the UK, please sign our letter to the Prime Minister to oppose any move to assisted suicide
Our duty of care is a group of UK healthcare workers who oppose the intentional killing of patients by assisted suicide or euthanasia.
The campaign is administered by David Randall, a consultant nephrologist working in London, and Gillian Wright, a former palliative care doctor based in Scotland.
It is supported by a wide range of healthcare professionals, and has campaigned during the membership polls run by the Royal College of Physicians, Royal College of General Practitioners and British Medical Association to maintain medical opposition to assisted suicide. We are a campaign that is financed and administered by the Care Not Killing Alliance.
Journalists in England, Wales and Northern Ireland – please contact Alistair Thompson on 07970 162225 – [email protected]
Journalists in Scotland – please contact Tom Hamilton Communications on 07836 603977
Care NOT Killing – Promoting palliative care, opposing euthanasia and assisted suicide
A Limited Company in England and Wales, Company No. 06360578
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