Disbelief as assisted suicide lobbyist markets practice as ‘suicide prevention’

Assisted suicide is a form of suicide prevention, an architect of legislation in Australia has claimed.

Alex Greenwich MP, whose Voluntary Assisted Dying Bill became law in New South Wales in 2022, made the astonishing claim in evidence before Westminster MPs considering similar proposals.

Greenwich was one of 46 witnesses selected by Kim Leadbeater to address her Committee as it considers her plans to allow those in England and Wales diagnosed as terminally ill, and deemed to have less than six months to live, to receive help to kill themselves.

Palliative care funding slashed

The Australian told MPs: “Voluntary assisted dying in New South Wales is an important form of suicide prevention.”

In 2023, Greenwich said that the high rate of suicide among people who are terminally ill is “among the compelling reasons to grant choice to people at the end of life”.

During the final day of oral submissions, he claimed: “The Australian experience with voluntary assisted dying is that it benefits and strengthens the palliative care system.”

But contradicting the assertion, Danny Kruger MP pointed out that following the introduction of assisted suicide in New South Wales, in 2023 the palliative care budget had been been cut by AU$249 million, while the state had allocated AU$97 million “in new funding to assisted dying”.

Pressure

MPs also heard from Professor Meredith Blake, a law professor at the University of Western Australia, who was asked by Sean Woodcock MP whether it concerned her that a large proportion of people who asked for assisted suicide cited “being a burden” as their reason.

Blake dismissed the evidence, stating: “There are people who feel that they are a burden. People can feel that they are a burden, and that is part of their autonomous thinking.”

In contrast, Professor Gareth Owen, a psychiatrist and medical ethicist, highlighted to the Committee the relationship between cognitive impairment, strong family bonds, and someone’s decision to ask for assisted suicide.

He explained: “It is important to draw attention to pressure – not necessarily as malign in its intention – but which nevertheless operates in these situations, and can have a subtle impact on the functional test of decision-making capacity. To bring us back to what the decision-making capacity is that we are talking about, it’s the decision to end one’s own life.”

The Committee next meets on 11 Feburary.