Anti-assisted dying survey backfires

Update, 7 October: This news item has been modified for clarity in a number of places from what was originally posted, including as to what the headline findings were of the opinion poll it examines. We apologise for any confusion. We have also removed a portion of it that dealt with an opinion piece in the Times Thunderer by David Albert Jones, Professor in Bioethics at St Mary’s University, Twickenham. The piece did not include falsehoods that it would be illegal knowingly to republish. We apologise if the article seemed to suggest that it did. In relation to all opinion polls on this topic, we urge journalists and the general public to fact-check press releases, newspaper articles, and comment pieces by looking at the source data to see what questions were asked.

A poll commissioned by the anti-assisted dying group ‘The Living and Dying Well Coalition’ from Whitestone Insight instead highlights the public’s strong and continued support for assisted dying legislation. 

Humanists UK welcomes this public support and urges journalists to closely scrutinise press releases from anti-assisted dying groups by looking at the source data when writing up the results.

Public support for change in the law

The headline figures of the survey are that 60% of the 2,001 respondents supported assisted dying in principle and in practice, with 13% supporting it in principle and not in practice and only 11% opposed entirely. But what is striking is that these are the findings even when the question has been written in a deliberately callous or flippant way, e.g. saying ‘a doctor hands a patient lethal drugs’, which ignores the numerous safeguards in proposed UK legislation. Other polls have consistently shown higher levels of support, for both the terminally ill and incurably suffering.

Living and Dying Well has been funded in the past by the Catholic Trust for England and Wales. One of its directors is Lord Alton, a fervent campaigner against assisted dying and abortion rights.

Dubious claims, survey tactics

The survey questions also include a number of dubious claims. One section claims ‘In every country where [assisted dying] has been legalised, the categories of people eligible for it have expanded’. The eligibility criteria for assisted dying in the US state of Oregon have remained the same for 27 years, other than that people out of state can now have an assisted death. Lots of other jurisdictions haven’t changed their criteria.

Another survey question claims ‘Every survey of people who choose [assisted dying] where it is legal finds that fear of “being a burden” is one of the main reasons for choosing it.’ It is worth being clear that ‘being a burden’ is not, and has never, been an eligibility requirement for assisted dying anywhere in the world. We fear that some survey respondents may have been misled on this point by the wording of this statement.

Another question claims suicide rates have either stayed the same or increased in places where assisted dying has been legalised. This is factually incorrect. Studies that have attempted to find a link between suicide rates and assisted dying have never been able to find any causal link between the two.

That’s not the only problem. An article in the Telegraph based on the survey claimed that ‘a plurality fear that it might incentivise doctors to encourage patients to take their lives to ease pressures on the NHS.’ But the question the article refers to comes after the poll has required respondents to respond to the dubious claims and several concerns raised about assisted dying. This is a well-known technique when pollsters wish to  ‘lead’ or ‘prime’ the public to give a more hostile response. 

Even so, within that very same article, the Telegraph ran its own readers’ poll, in which 72% of nearly 26,000 people support legalising assisted dying:

Nathan Stilwell, Humanists UK Assisted Dying Campaigner, said: 

‘There should be greater scrutiny on the groups that campaign against assisted dying, as well as where they receive their funding.

‘This failed effort by anti-assisted dying campaigners should show politicians the resolution behind the public’s will for assisted dying to be legalised. No-one should be forced to suffer against their will and people deserve the right to a compassionate and dignified death.’

Notes: