‘Assisted suicide could kill patients who have years left to live’

Doctors and palliative care experts have warned that ‘terminally ill’ people who seek assisted suicide could actually have years left to live.

Professor Katherine Sleeman, Laing Galazka Chair in Palliative Care, pointed out that the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) reviews its benefits for terminally ill patients every three years — even though they must be expected to die within twelve months to qualify for support.

Next month, the House of Commons will debate Kim Leadbeater’s assisted suicide Bill. If the Labour MP’s proposals become law, those deemed to be terminally ill would be allowed to receive help to kill themselves.

‘Arbitrary’

Professor Sleeman told The Daily Telegraph that the DWP’s data “shows that people who were estimated to live for only 12 months ended up living for more than three years”.

She emphasised that a six or twelve-month prognosis “is an arbitrary line in the sand”, as it is “not possible to accurately determine someone’s prognosis as a number of months”.

Speaking to the same newspaper, senior oncologist Professor Chris Parker recently saw a patient who was given a terminal cancer diagnosis ten years ago.

Parker warned: “I have little doubt that some patients would choose assisted suicide if it was legal, because they were told they had less than six months to live, but in truth, if they had not had assisted suicide, would have lived for years and enjoyed a good quality of life, because I’ve seen patients like that.”

Misdiagnosis

In a letter to The Times, retired physician Peter Davies said that patient safety is the “strongest argument against a change in the law”.

He reflected that the approval of two doctors does not guarantee that a diagnosis is correct, as he was involved in a case where over 50 doctors cared for a misdiagnosed patient who later died from the wrong treatment.

Davies added: “Vulnerable people may feel that they are a burden to their relatives, friends or even society at large and so wish to end their lives. Relatives may put pressure on a doctor to end the life of a relation who is proving a physical or financial burden.”

Compassion

Last week, the Archbishop of Canterbury warned that legalising assisted suicide “could open the door to yet more pain and suffering for those we are trying to help”.

Writing in The Daily Mail, Justin Welby said “even where there is no abuse, the pressure to end one’s life early could be intense and inescapable if the law were changed”, and “the right to end your life could all too easily – and accidentally – turn into a duty to do so”.

He added: “I don’t want the people I love – or anyone, for that matter – to be made to feel a burden in their final months on earth. Dying in pain is not inevitable.

“Good palliative care can provide us with the dignity and compassion we are all searching for. My mum’s last days were eased by advice and medication from a hospice. She died peacefully, heavily sedated and deeply loved. That, to me, is dignity in dying.”