Ex-BBC journalist: ‘Assisted suicide slippery slope is all too real’

Former BBC journalist Iain Macwhirter has warned that assisted suicide must not become a “kind of default social care for the poor and the disabled”.

Writing in The Times, the political commentator shared how he used to unquestionably support assisted suicide, before realising that the “slippery slope is all too real and all but unavoidable”.

He emphasised that despite best intentions, international experience shows that assisted suicide laws cannot be “watertight”, as they inevitably expand to include more groups of people.

‘Guilt’

Macwhirter warned that Britain could end up like the Netherlands, where a 29-year-old with depression was allowed to be killed in May, and where 138 people with psychological conditions died last year.

He stated: “Disability rights groups and disabled actors such as Liz Carr say the prospect is ‘terrifying’. They warn of disabled older people, deprived of costly care, taking their own lives in desperation. And they foresee an overworked and under-resources health service being passively compliant in allowing old people to think that it’s ‘time to go’.”

The journalist said that his late mother, who passed away under palliative care, would have felt pressured to seek assisted suicide if it had been available.

Macwhirter reflected: “Chrissie hated being ‘a burden’ to her family and the hospital. I could not stand the thought of her, and many like her, being tormented with guilt for not taking the chemical road to oblivion.”

Expansion

Earlier this week, it was revealed that a number of MPs are pushing for an expansion of assisted suicide proposals to embrace those who are not terminally ill.

According to The Daily Telegraph, Humanists UK reports that thirteen Government figures and a further 41 politicians want Kim Leadbeater’s Bill in the House of Commons to apply to those who are “incurably suffering”.

Although the Labour MP claimed her proposals would only allow those deemed to be terminally ill to receive help to kill themselves, she said that she is “open-minded” and will consider whether to broaden the Bill before she introduces it on 16 October.