Assisted dying ban sees hundreds of terminally ill take their lives every year

Up to 650 terminally ill people have taken ‘drastic measures’ to end their own lives in the UK every year and succeed in doing it, while 6,500 have attempted to, according to campaigners who want a ban on assisted dying lifted.

New research estimates 300-650 terminally ill people manage to take their own life every year, while between 3,000-6,500 people try to.

A report by campaign group Dignity in Dying named: ‘Last Resort: The hidden truth about how dying people take their own lives in the UK’, has revealed 5-10 per cent of suicides in the UK involve dying people - equating to between 300 to 650 cases a year.

The organisation's estimate is based on Freedom of Information requests, public health audits, studies of coroner records and Office for National Statistics figures.

Assisted dying is currently banned in England and Wales under the 1961 Suicide Act, which carries a maximum jail term of 14 years. However, on 22 October, Parliament will debate an Assisted Dying Bill which calls for the ban to be lifted for the terminally ill.

The Assisted Dying Bill is a private member’s bill, proposed by Dignity in Dying chair and crossbench peer Baroness Meacher, which would legalise assisted dying as a choice for terminally ill, mentally competent adults in their final months of life to enable them “to die in a manner and at a time of their choosing”.

The Bill received its First Reading on 26 May and is scheduled to receive its Second Reading in the House of Lords on 22 October.

Some 73 per cent of British people recognise that there is a distinction between a terminally ill adult seeking assistance to end their life, and suicide, according to polling of over 1,700 people by YouGov, conducted on behalf of Dignity in Dying.

Most people (68 per cent) do not believe suicide prevention work should include preventing terminally ill people from seeking an assisted death and 74 per cent want Parliament to back the Assisted Dying Bill to get assisted dying legalised.

Mum did finally manage to ‘escape’ her ‘terrible pain’

Zoe Marley experienced the death of her mother from skin cancer in 2018 and also the death of her husband Andrew from colon cancer in June 2021.

Ms Marley said: “By the end, my mother’s cancer had spread from her heel all the way to her brain and she was in terrible pain. Mum was determined not to let the cancer do its worse; that she would construct some kind of escape. Because she had no other viable alternative, she attempted to take her life out in the garden, alone.

“When we discovered her she was still breathing, and as it began to grow cold I rang an ambulance to help move her inside. I told them of Mum’s clearly defined wish not to be revived and showed them the legally-binding documents to prove it, but they would not listen. A doctor was called, who threatened me and called the police. Paramedics, doctors and police officers were all in my garden arguing about what to do, as my Mum lay dying on the ground.

“Hours later Mum regained consciousness and was in emotional and physical agony. A few weeks later, Mum did finally manage to escape her pain. I was questioned by police for hours and made to sign a five-page statement.”

Eleven months later, Ms Marley’s husband Andrew was diagnosed with colon cancer.

She says “His death this year was full of horror, pain and indignity; we crossed every line we didn’t want to cross. I cannot put into words how different it would have been for them and for our family if my Mum and my husband could each have been assisted to go peacefully as they wished, and with the dignity they deserved.”

Doctor: ‘He had shot himself'. Assisted dying would be ‘kinder’ and ’safer'’

Retired GP, Dr Julian Neal said in the Dignity in Dying report: “To deny patients the choice of an assisted death when we know that a significant minority of deaths are wretched, no matter how expert the provision of palliative care, seems to me utterly wrong.

“But this is what I was forced to do when asked for help to die by a patient with advanced metastatic melanoma. He was intelligent and knowledgeable about what lay ahead, wanting to avoid a lingering demise.

“I explained that I was unable to help him due to the very real threat of imprisonment. I was later horrified to learn that he had shot himself.

“An assisted dying law would provide a kinder, safer alternative which I and a growing number of doctors would be prepared to be involved in; a welcome and much-needed change from the cruelty of our current system.”

People taking their own lives in ‘violent and extreme ways’

Sarah Wootton, chief executive of Dignity in Dying, has called the UK’s blanket ban on assisted dying “uncompassionate” and “deeply unsafe”.

Sarah Wootton said: “Denied the safe, legal choice they want in this country - with Dignitas only open to those with the funds or strength to travel - hundreds of terminally ill people every year are resorting to taking their own lives in violent and extreme ways.

“We call urgently for a change in the law to give terminally ill, mentally competent adults the choice of an assisted death alongside all current end-of-life care options, as proposed in the Assisted Dying Bill due for debate in the House of Lords on Friday.”