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Sources · Assisted dying

This house would legalise assisted dying.

Fact bank v1 · 12 cards

  1. ASD-01True

    “Most people in Britain support making assisted dying legal for terminally ill adults.”

    Confirmed: four polls taken in autumn 2024 all found that most adults back a change in the law. Between 63% and 70% said yes, depending on the poll and the question.

    Ipsos found 66% in favour and 16% against. Support is lower when the person is suffering but is not dying: between 45% and 57% backed help for them. The way a question is worded changes the answer. One poll found that 66% of white people wanted Parliament to make it legal within five years, compared with 46% of people from ethnic minority backgrounds.

    “They generally show that a majority of adults in the UK support a change in the law”
    House of Commons Library·The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill 2024-25 (Research Briefing CBP-10123)Government / parliament · 22 Nov 2024 ↗
  2. ASD-02Mixed

    “Most doctors in the UK are against assisted dying.”

    Doctors are split. In a 2020 survey of 28,986 members of the British Medical Association (BMA), 40% said it should support a change in the law, 33% said it should oppose it and 21% said it should stay neutral. Since September 2021 the BMA has been neutral, which means it takes no side.

    Other doctors' groups also take no side. The Royal College of Physicians chose this in 2019, after a survey where 43.4% wanted it to oppose a change and 31.6% wanted it to support one. The Royal College of GPs used to oppose a change and moved to no side in March 2025. Palliative care doctors, who look after people near the end of life, lean against: their association told the House of Lords in 2025 that most of its members are not in favour. In the 2020 BMA survey, 36% of doctors said they would be willing to take part if the law changed, and 45% said no.

    “The BMA adopted a neutral position on assisted dying in September 2021.”
    House of Commons Library·The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill 2024-25 (Research Briefing CBP-10123)Government / parliament · 22 Nov 2024 ↗

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  3. ASD-03Unsupported

    “Legalising assisted dying makes palliative care worse.”

    There is no clear evidence for this. In 2024, MPs on the Health and Social Care Committee found no sign that end-of-life care got worse in places where assisted dying became legal. In several places, the change went along with better palliative care.

    Palliative care is care that eases pain and other symptoms near the end of life. In Canada, 77.6% of people who had an assisted death in 2022 had received palliative care. In 2022, Parliament's science office said the evidence is mixed, with no clear pattern from country to country. For example, specialist palliative care kept growing in the Netherlands and Switzerland, but its growth in Belgium stalled after 2012. Some palliative care doctors disagree with the MPs: in 2025 their association told the House of Lords that legal assisted dying holds back the growth of palliative care services. Many groups say palliative care in the UK is patchy, so the care people get depends on where they live.

    “we did not see any indications of palliative and end-of-life care deteriorating in quality or provision following the introduction of AD/AS”
    House of Commons Health and Social Care Committee·Assisted Dying/Assisted Suicide (Second Report of Session 2023–24, HC 321)Government / parliament · 29 Feb 2024 ↗

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  4. ASD-04True

    “People with terminal illnesses are more likely to take their own lives.”

    Confirmed: an ONS study in England found that in the first year after diagnosis, suicide rates were 2.4 times higher for people with cancers that few people survive, or with COPD (a serious lung disease), than for similar people without these illnesses.

    For these cancers the rate was 22.2 per 100,000 people, against 9.1 for similar people. For heart disease it was nearly twice as high. Not everyone in the study was terminally ill, but the ONS says many would count as terminally ill. The study covered 2017 to March 2020 and is marked as experimental, which means its methods are still new. It does not say why people took their lives, so it cannot show that the ban on assisted dying is the cause, or that a new law would prevent these deaths. People who went abroad for an assisted death were not counted.

    “One year after diagnosis for low survival cancers, the suicide rate for patients (22.2 deaths per 100,000 people) was 2.4 times higher”
    Office for National Statistics·Suicides among people diagnosed with severe health conditions, England: 2017 to 2020Official statistics · 20 Apr 2022 ↗
  5. ASD-05Mixed

    “Legalising assisted dying leads to more suicides.”

    It depends on what you count. Studies find that assisted deaths and suicides added together go up after assisted dying is made legal. But when they counted suicides alone, the studies generally found no clear link.

    A US study of 1990 to 2013 found that making assisted suicide legal was linked with a 6.3% rise in all suicides when assisted deaths are counted too, and a 14.5% rise among people over 65. Parliament's science office says there are few studies on this, and some researchers want better ones. Studies like these show that two things happen together, not that one causes the other.

    “When measuring suicide rates only, these studies generally did not show a statistically significant correlation between legalisation of assisted dying and suicide rates.”
    Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology (UK Parliament)·Assisted dying (POSTbrief 47)Government / parliament · 26 Sept 2022 ↗

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  6. ASD-06Unsupported

    “Legalising assisted dying would cut the number of other suicides.”

    There is no good evidence for this. A study of US states from 1990 to 2013 found that making assisted suicide legal was not linked with any fall in other suicides.

    Supporters argue that a legal choice would stop desperate people from taking their lives alone. The same study found that all suicides, counting assisted deaths, went up by 6.3%. Parliament's science office says studies generally found no clear link with suicide rates, and some researchers want better studies to check whether there is no link at all or a small rise.

    “Introduction of PAS was neither associated with a reduction in nonassisted suicide rates nor with an increase in the mean age of nonassisted suicide.”
    Southern Medical Journal, via PubMed (US National Library of Medicine)·How Does Legalization of Physician-Assisted Suicide Affect Rates of Suicide? (Southern Medical Journal, PubMed abstract)Government / parliament · 1 Oct 2015 ↗

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  7. ASD-07Mostly false

    “Assisted dying laws end up targeting poor, disabled and vulnerable people.”

    The best evidence does not show this. A 2007 study of Oregon and the Netherlands found no higher rates among older people, women, poor people, people without health insurance, people with less education, disabled people or people with long-term illness, children, people with mental illness or ethnic minorities. Only people with AIDS had a higher rate.

    The people who used it tended to be better off, with more money and education. A 2016 review of data from the US, Canada and Europe also found no place where vulnerable patients got it more often than everyone else. But there is not much data. Some experts dispute the Oregon findings, for example on older people and on depression that was not treated. Some Belgian research suggests that when life-ending drugs were given without a clear request, it mostly happened to vulnerable patients. In 2021, UN human rights experts warned that disabled and older people may feel quietly pressured.

    “there is no current evidence for the claim that legalised PAS or euthanasia will have disproportionate impact on patients in vulnerable groups”
    Journal of Medical Ethics (BMJ), via PubMed Central·Legal physician-assisted dying in Oregon and the Netherlands: evidence concerning the impact on patients in "vulnerable" groups (Journal of Medical Ethics)Government / parliament · 1 Oct 2007 ↗

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  8. ASD-08Mostly false

    “Most people who choose assisted dying do so because they are in unbearable pain.”

    Pain is usually not the main reason. A major 2016 review of data from the US, Canada and Europe found that pain is mostly not given as the main reason. In Oregon in 2024, the most common worries were losing independence and not being able to enjoy life, each named by nearly 9 in 10 people.

    Pain still matters. Pain, or fear of pain to come, is one of the reasons people give, along with loss of dignity and fear of being a burden. In Oregon in 2024, 64% named loss of dignity. Many people who used assisted dying in Oregon and Washington state were already getting hospice or palliative care.

    “Pain is mostly not reported as the primary motivation.”
    JAMA, via PubMed (US National Library of Medicine)·Attitudes and Practices of Euthanasia and Physician-Assisted Suicide in the United States, Canada, and Europe (JAMA, PubMed abstract)Government / parliament · 5 Jul 2016 ↗

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  9. ASD-09True

    “Many people who choose assisted dying say they feel like a burden on their family.”

    Confirmed: in Oregon, 48% of people who had an assisted death between 1998 and 2022 said that being a burden on family, friends or carers was one of their worries. In 2024 it was 42%.

    People can name more than one worry, and feeling a burden is rarely the only one. In Oregon, losing independence was the most common worry, named by nearly 9 in 10. In 2024, 9% named the cost of treatment. Opponents fear that feeling a burden could push people towards an early death. The UK bill put forward in 2024 said two doctors must check that the person chose freely, without pressure.

    “48% of people who have pursued AD/AS in Oregon since 1998 cited being a “burden on family, friends/caregivers” as a end-of-life concern.”
    House of Commons Health and Social Care Committee·Assisted Dying/Assisted Suicide (Second Report of Session 2023–24, HC 321)Government / parliament · 29 Feb 2024 ↗

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  10. ASD-10Mixed

    “Once assisted dying is legal, the rules always get widened to more people.”

    Some places have widened their rules, but not all. Belgium removed its age limit in 2014. In 2021 Canada changed its law so that people who are not close to death can also apply. But none of the 10 places with rules like the UK bill put forward in 2024 have changed the main rules on who can apply.

    Those 10 places are nine in the US, counting Washington DC, plus New Zealand. They only allow adults expected to die within six months. Some made smaller changes: Oregon and Vermont let people from other states apply from 2023, and some cut waiting times. In 2020 the Netherlands agreed plans to allow it for dying children aged 1 to 12, with their parents' consent. In 2024, MPs found that no place that limits it to people who are dying had widened it to 'unbearable suffering', and that no place had scrapped its law. Canada and Belgium never had a six-month limit like the UK bill.

    “Across the 10 comparable jurisdictions, none changed the core eligibility criteria”
    Department of Health and Social Care (published by UK Parliament)·Impact Assessment: Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill (as amended in Public Bill Committee)Government / parliament · 14 May 2025 ↗

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  11. ASD-11True

    “In Canada, about 1 in 20 deaths is now an assisted death.”

    Confirmed: assisted deaths made up 4.7% of all deaths in Canada in 2023, close to 1 in 20. That is up from 2.0% in 2019.

    Canada's law is wider than the UK bill put forward in 2024. There is no set amount of time left to live, and since a 2021 change called Bill C-7, people who are not close to death can also apply, with extra checks such as a 90-day wait. In 2022 they were 3.5% of cases. In the places with rules like the UK bill, assisted deaths never made up more than 1% of deaths in any year; in California it was 0.3% in 2023. In 2024 Canada put off allowing it for mental illness alone until 2027.

    “In 2023 for example, assisted deaths accounted for 0.3% of all deaths in California (USA), compared to 4.7% in Canada.”
    Department of Health and Social Care (published by UK Parliament)·Impact Assessment: Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill (as amended in Public Bill Committee)Government / parliament · 14 May 2025 ↗

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  12. ASD-12True

    “British people already travel to Switzerland to end their lives because they cannot get help at home.”

    Confirmed: Dignitas figures show that 571 people from Great Britain had an assisted death with it in Switzerland between 1998 and 2023, including 40 in 2023.

    Nobody keeps an official count, so the true number who go abroad is not known, and Dignitas is not the only Swiss group. At the end of 2023, 1,900 people from Great Britain were members of Dignitas, which people must join before they can use it. In England and Wales, helping someone go abroad to die can be a crime with up to 14 years in prison. Prosecutors look at each case and decide whether taking someone to court is in the public interest.

    “Statistics published by Dignitas show that 571 people from Great Britain accessed an assisted death at Dignitas between 1998 and 2023.”
    House of Commons Library·The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill 2024-25 (Research Briefing CBP-10123)Government / parliament · 22 Nov 2024 ↗

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