Health Secretary: ‘Assisted suicide could force NHS to reduce services’

Health Secretary Wes Streeting has warned that introducing assisted suicide could divert crucial funds from other areas of healthcare.

Streeting has instructed the Department of Health and Social Care to conduct a cost analysis of Kim Leadbeater MP’s assisted suicide Bill, because it would have “resource implications” for palliative care and the rest of the NHS.

Streeting previously revealed that he will vote against Kim Leadbeater MP’s assisted suicide Bill on 29 November, over concerns that palliative care is not “where it needs to be to give people a real choice”.

‘Slippery slope’

The Health Secretary stated: “If Parliament chooses to go ahead with assisted dying, it is making a choice that this is an area to prioritise for investment.”

He emphasised that “any new service comes at the expense of other competing pressures and priorities”, and “people can see the state of public finances, the state of our public services, and we do need to be in the business of making choices”.

Streeting raised the concern that patients could seek assisted suicide to save the NHS money, saying: “You do touch on the slippery slope argument, which is the potential for cost savings if people choose to opt for assisted dying rather than stay in the care of the care providers or the NHS”.

Palliative care

Earlier this month, more than 3,400 doctors, nurses and other practitioners expressed “great concern” at Leadbeater’s Bill.

In an open letter to the Prime Minister, organised by campaign group Our Duty of Care, the signatories stated that 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”.

“The prohibition of killing is present in all societies due to the immeasurable worth and inherent dignity of every human life. The prohibition of killing is the safeguard. The current law is the protection for the vulnerable.”