A Labour MP says that end-of-life care must be fixed ahead of any debate about the legalisation of assisted suicide, echoing comments made by the Prime Minister last month.
Just weeks before Second Reading of the new assisted suicide Bill on 11 September, Adam Jogee, the Labour MP for Newcastle-under-Lyme, has argued that poor access to high-quality end-of-life care, which many people experience, could lead to individuals ending their lives by assisted suicide due to a lack of care.
“If even one person feels driven to choose an assisted death because suitable care is unavailable, or because they worry that their family cannot cope because support is inadequate, then we will have failed to be the compassionate society that we think we are”, Jogee said.
The Member of Parliament asked whether individuals could have a real and meaningful choice at the end of their lives if proper care is “too often inaccessible, inconsistent and overstretched”.
Jogee pointed to numerous examples of the care crisis to explain why legalising assisted suicide in this context would be disastrous, including referring to a report from Hospice UK that revealed that approximately two-thirds of people who live in rural areas are unable to access palliative and end-of-life care close to home, which could make them feel pressure to end their lives by assisted suicide if the practice were to be legalised.
He added that many people only realise that accessing such vital end-of-life care is difficult only when they need it, and stated that data has shown that almost 60% of hospices in England have made or are considering making cuts to frontline services, meaning that unless drastic changes are made the situation will likely get worse rather than better.
Jogee reiterated that this “broken system” also leaves those who work in care services feeling “undervalued and underpaid”.
“That cannot be the foundation upon which we ask Parliament to make one of the most profound life-and-death decisions of our time”, he said.