Hospices warn on assisted dying

Hospices in the UK are warning of severe underfunding, leading to fears that if ‘assisted dying’ is legalised, it would lead to more terminally ill patients requesting it.

In July, a Private Member’s bill on assisted dying was introduced in the Lords, and CARE has warned that a ‘right to die’ would become a ‘duty to die’. The bill was introduced by Lord Falconer, who has been campaigning for legalising assisted dying for more than a decade.

Just days later, three London hospices – St Raphael’s Hospice, Princess Alice Hospice and Royal Trinity Hospice – called on the government to step in and help, saying their requests for more funding have gone unmet.

Mark Pickering, CEO of the Christian Medical Fellowship, said: ‘The already existing gaps in palliative care provision would definitely make some people more likely to request assisted death. This has happened quite starkly in Canada.’