Pain isn’t really the problem that drives assisted suicide.

‘State-assisted dying’ (assisted suicide and euthanasia) is an issue that people feel passionately about. The euthanasia lobby often use the fear of future pain for stirring up public passion, but if passion overrides reason then the consequences for future generations can be disastrous.

The evidence from other countries demonstrates that the most common reasons why people request euthanasia and assisted suicide are NOT physical pain at all, but emotional and social reasons such as:
• Being ‘less able to engage in activities making life enjoyable’.
• Loss of autonomy.
• A perception of a loss of dignity.
• Fear of being a burden on family or care services.
• Fear of institutionalisation (e.g. not having a say in the dying process)
• Loneliness

For example, a British Columbia woman, Shirley Turton (78), became so depressed and lonely in a care home due to lockdown restrictions preventing family visits that she asked her daughter to arrange a death by euthanasia.

Changing the law to legalise assisted suicide or euthanasia does not solve any of these problems. It makes things worse. Social care solutions that could well have worked are never sought. Medical research budgets are diverted elsewhere. Palliative care stays underfunded.

If there is one thing we should learn from our response to the Covid pandemic it is that each and every person deserves the best possible care through the whole of their lives. Instead of offering death, the solution is to show solidarity with people who are vulnerable or disabled by supporting them to live and offering care and counselling. We need to improve how we care for people, not kill them.