Assisted suicide insurance pay-outs raise spectre of coercion

Insurance ‘windfalls’ may lead relatives to pressurise the elderly to opt for assisted suicide, campaigners have warned.

Professor Bill Noble, former president of the Association for Palliative Medicine, fears that if end-of-life protections were removed, the behaviour of unscrupulous relatives could see some patients “die before their time”.

Dr Gordon Macdonald of Care Not Killing raised similar concerns, saying the risk of coercion for monetary gain raised by insurance pay-outs highlighted the “inherent dangers of legalising assisted suicide”.

Policy decisions

Zurich Insurance, although it has no policy on assisted suicide, said it would look at any life insurance claim “sympathetically”.

A spokesman added: “In practice we would expect the large proportion of those considering assisted dying would be likely to have arrived at the terminal illness benefit stage and have claimed under that benefit.”

Royal London said: “if the individual who has passed away following an assisted death would likely have died naturally during the term of their plan, Royal London would likely pay such claims”.

Coercion

Dr Macdonald observed: “If the insurance companies will pay out in such circumstances, there will be nothing to stop those with greedy motives from seeking a financial windfall by putting pressure on those who are vulnerable to opt for assisted suicide or euthanasia.”

Prof Noble said: “My concern stems from my experience of a few families requesting, manipulating or misrepresenting my patients’ wish to die or be killed by medical intervention.”

He explained: “If the policy does not include terminal illness insurance and it is shortly coming to an end, it might well be a motive both for coercion and for the patient to choose assisted dying”.

Public reservations

A new survey has revealed that over half of adults who support assisted suicide admit they would be likely to change their mind if someone was pressured into being killed.

Of 2,063 adults in England and Wales surveyed by Focaldata, 63 per cent stated that they want Parliament to legalise assisted suicide in the next five years. But 55 per cent of those said they may reverse their support if “someone was pressured into having an assisted death”.