Bioethicists: UK assisted suicide cost-saving maths ‘sinister’

The Oxford-based Anscombe Bioethics Centre, which serves the Catholic Church in the UK and Ireland, spoke out ahead of the resumption of debate in the UK Parliament on Labour MP Kim Leadbeater’s Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill on June 13.

Anscombe carried out an analysis on impact assessments by the Department of Health and Social Care and the Ministry of Justice should the bill become law.

Although it would cost millions of pounds to establish assisted suicide infrastructure – including the creation of a Voluntary Assisted Dying Commission – government accountants believe about £90 million could nevertheless be saved in the first decade, with £59.6 million shaved off National Health Service (NHS) expenditure and state pension payments reduced by £18.3 million.

Anscombe said the UK government has set down “in black and white estimates for how much money the NHS could save, and local authorities and the exchequer could save, if only patients died earlier”, adding: “It is truly a sinister document.”

A consequence of framing death as cost reduction is the reinforcement of “the pernicious belief that those receiving care are a burden to society”, Anscombe’s comment continued. “This idea is one that can result in indirect pressure on a person to end their life.”

The calculation sets “no value on protecting life but measures the impact of policy only by financial costs and cost reductions”, Anscombe said.

“The costs reductions it identifies are not because people could live without the proposed spending or could live with cheaper alternatives, but are because they are dead.

“Dead people do not utilise health care or receive care from local authorities, or benefits from the state.”

Anscombe disputed a Government estimate that 4500 patients each year would have an assisted death by medics, saying the number would likely be much higher. It also pointed out that the money spent setting up an assisted suicide regime could be spent improving NHS services instead.

FULL STORY

Government criticised for rating assisted suicide law by cash saved in patient deaths (By Simon Caldwell/ Catholic Herald)