The politicians trying to force eathanasia into law in Britain know full well that it would lead to people chosing to die rather than be a financial burden on their families.
Assisted suicide could be permitted for those who wish to end their lives to ease financial burdens on their families under Kim Leadbeater’s assisted suicide Bill.
During the assisted suicide Bill Committee’s debate scrutinising her Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill at the beginning of this month, Leadbeater was asked multiple times whether people who sought assisted suicide to enable relatives to make cost savings would be approved. She refused to rule out this possibility in her replies.
In a revealing exchange, Danny Kruger MP, one of the Bill’s principal opponents, asked Leadbeater whether she would “be content if somebody who had capacity chose an assisted death for the purpose of saving their family money?”. Leadbeater replied saying the situation was more complicated than he suggested.
He followed up by asking “If they have been judged to have capacity, choosing to have the assisted death in order to save their family money would be acceptable under her Bill, would it not?”.
Leadbeater again refused to rule out this possibility, saying “We are oversimplifying a complex situation and a difficult conversation” and calling for “expertise” that would be achieved “by providing serious amounts of training around this issue”.
Pressing his point for the final time, Kruger said “I want to hear the Hon. Lady confirm that under the Bill as currently drafted, after all these conversations have taken place, as long as the doctor cannot find evidence of coercion, they would be obliged to approve the assisted death, as would the judge and the judicial panel. If that is the case, and they conclude that a person has capacity and there is no evidence of coercion, no matter what conversations go on—if the person wants to do it in order to save their family money—the doctors and the judges would have to say yes”.
After Leadbeater prevaricated once more, Rebecca Paul MP also attempted to elicit a specific response from her on this point “[W]ould someone be allowed to access assisted dying if it was clear that they had capacity and their reason for it was simply not to cost their relatives financial expense or be a burden[?] It is important to be honest about what the Bill does. Is the answer to that yes?”.
Leadbeater again refused to give a straight answer, saying “it comes down to a question of autonomy, dignity and choice for patients”.