A retired nurse from Bath held a demonstration outside the Guildhall last week to call for the legalisation of assisted dying.
70-year-old Pauline Carroll, who runs the Bath and Bristol Dignity in Dying campaign group, gathered with others to call for terminally ill people to have the right to a dignified and safe death.
The call comes after new ONS data commissioned to inform the assisted dying debate indicated safety implications of the current law.
Pauline, who worked as a district nurse for many years, says she witnessed the suffering and pain of many terminally ill people.
The demonstration was held on the same day that new data revealed that people with severe and potentially terminal health conditions are more than twice as likely to take their own lives than the general population.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) examined suicide rates among people with a range of health conditions with poor prognoses and found that those with low survival cancers are at 2.4 times higher risk of suicide than those without, those with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) also at 2.4 times higher risk and those with chronic ischemic heart conditions are at nearly 2 times higher risk.
Dignity in Dying research estimates that up to 650 terminally ill people are taking their own lives every year in the UK in lieu of the safe, legal choice of assisted dying.
The ONS data was commissioned last April by the then Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, the Rt Hon Matt Hancock MP, at a meeting of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Choice at the End of Life in order to inform the assisted dying debate.
Mr Hancock commented at the time that “anyone who believes in high quality public discourse would want to see an independent and impartial set of facts on which we can then have a discussion.”
It followed the publication of preliminary data from the ONS in February 2021 which indicated that one in seven suicides are by people with experience of cancer, neurological, heart or lung disease.
The ONS then examined suicide rates among people diagnosed with low survival cancers, COPD and chronic ischemic heart conditions in England between 2017 and 2020 in comparison with a control group with similar socio-economic characteristics.
These conditions were chosen due to the “reasonable risk of death in those that are diagnosed”.
The ONS found that people with these conditions were more than twice as likely to take their own life, with people with low survival cancers and COPD at the greatest risk.
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) recently proposed updates to its guidance on suicide pacts and so-called ‘mercy killings’, which carry a potential charge of manslaughter or murder respectively, clarifying that it is not in the public interest to prosecute where the deceased was seriously ill with a clear and settled wish to die and where the assistance was compassionately motivated.
This mirrors existing guidance for cases of ‘assisting or encouraging a suicide’ and has been welcomed by Dignity in Dying, however it does not change the law; a blanket ban on assisted dying remains which only Parliament can address.
Pauline said: “Having nursed terminally ill patients who have asked for help to die, the government must act now to hold a debate on assisted dying to give them the right to a safe and dignified death. These worrying statistics from the ONS cannot be ignored.
“If those who are against changing the law had been close to those who are terminally ill, and enduring an agonising and undignified death, who had requested a quicker end – they would think again.”
Sarah Wootton, Chief Executive of Dignity in Dying, said: “Dignity in Dying has long raised the alarm that terminally ill people are taking their own lives under the ban on assisted dying.
“This data proves that these deaths are not isolated tragedies but warning signs that the current law has serious patient safety implications for dying people which can no longer be ignored.
“Without a safe, legal option to die on their own terms, hundreds of terminally ill people every year are taking matters into their own hands using whatever means are at their disposal, from stockpiled medication to firearms, often dying lonely, premature and painful deaths or begging loved ones for compassionate but illegal help.
“The vast majority are abandoned at their time of need with no medical support or oversight, with only a fortunate few able to access a peaceful assisted death overseas.
“Under safeguarded assisted dying legislation, patients would be far better able to discuss their concerns for the end of life openly and honestly with their loved ones and medical team, improving awareness of and access to all end-of-life care options and better allowing concerns about mental health or capacity to be identified and addressed.
“Only those with a terminal prognosis and full mental capacity as confirmed by independent doctors and a judge would be able to access this option, providing much-needed transparency and regulation where there is presently none.
“Those who block reform on assisted dying are defending a law that puts vulnerable people at risk and fails to provide adequate choice or protection – the very basics of good end-of-life care.
“The data today confirms that the blanket ban on assisted dying is not only uncompassionate and unequal, but deeply unsafe for our terminally ill citizens, and it must act as a clarion call for Parliament to examine the full impact of the current law.
“This is not simply a matter for debate but of patient safety, of the utmost urgency.”
Dignity in Dying campaigns for a change in the law to allow assisted dying as a choice for terminally ill, mentally competent adults, subject to strict safeguards and alongside access to high-quality palliative care.
This reform is supported by 84% of the public (Populus, 2019) and over 69,000 have signed a government petition calling for a full and fair debate on assisted dying.
Around the world, more than 200 million people have access to assisted dying laws, including one in five Americans, two in three Australians and all New Zealanders.