
North Wales MS and Chair of the Senedd Cross-Party Groups on Hospices and Palliative Care, on Funerals and Bereavement and on Disability, Mark Isherwood, has today warned of the potential dangers of legalising assisted dying.
Speaking in the Member Debate on Assisted Dying in this afternoon’s meeting of the Welsh Parliament, Mr Isherwood quoted individuals, charities and organisations who have all expressed deep concern about legislating to allow assisted dying, including the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England & Wales, which states: “The priority should be to fix the poor state of the NHS and palliative care services, not legalise assisted suicide”.
Speaking in the debate, Mr Isherwood said:
“When we last debated Assisted Dying here a decade ago, Baroness Ilora Finlay, who worked as a palliative care consultant for nearly 40 years, told me that: ‘Those of us who care for terminally ill people day in and day out are all too well aware of the vulnerability of people who are dying - how they can be prone to depression, feel a burden on those around them, be pressurised by the unscrupulous and veer from hope one day to despair the next and back again. This is not to mention the fallibility of medical diagnosis and prognosis. That is why the majority of doctors, and especially those of us who treat dying patients, are opposed to a change in the law. Legalising 'assisted dying' might meet the wishes of a small minority of highly resolute, determined people but it has the potential to put many more vulnerable patients in harm's way’.
“When I spoke with her last week, she told me that she stands by what she said then – and as she stated only yesterday:
- 1 in 6 people over 65 are affected by abuse and there is a real danger of coercion;
- The Journal of Pain and Symptom Management has published evidence showing that Countries which have introduced assisted dying have fallen in the Global rankings for End of Life Care;
- And although this motion states that up to 88% of the public favour a change in the law, the polls do not consider the practicalities of this.”
“In contrast, The 2019 Royal College of Physicians’ poll found that 80% of Palliative Care physicians, those working with dying people, remain opposed to medicine’s involvement in ending patients’ lives, with only 4% in favour.”
“Disability Wales and All Wales People First have warned that ‘the implications of the Private Members’ Bill are far reaching with serious potential consequences’, adding ‘this is why no Deaf and Disabled People’s Organisations in the UK are in favour of legalisation’.
“As The Royal College of Psychiatrists Wales states, ‘a person who has a terminal physical illness is more likely to have a mental illness’ and ‘People at end of life deserve high quality psychiatric treatment and research suggests that if depression is treated in people with a physical terminal illness, their wish to hasten death lessens’.
He added:
“As Hospice UK state ‘regardless of any change in the law, Welsh Government need to reduce inequity in access to, and experience of palliative and end of life care”.
“And as Marie Curie state “urgent action is needed in Wales to ensure that our palliative and end of life care system meets the needs of people across Wales … and can respond to the growing number of people who will require palliative and end of life care in coming years’.
“Adding that there is an ‘implementation gap’ between what the Welsh Government set out in its vision for palliative and end of life care and this becoming a reality for all.”