Two US doctors giving evidence to the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill committee today have told MPs that they have never seen any cases of coercion. Humanists UK has welcomed their evidence.
Dr Ryan Spielvogal, Senior Medical Director for Aid in Dying Services in California, told MPs:
‘I’ll tell you in practice it just doesn’t happen. So I’ve seen assisted dying laws go into practice across numerous states. I have helped many many people through this process, I have never seen a case of even suspected coercion.
‘People are just not that good as actors. We get the family out of the room, we dig deep into their concerns and their justifications and reasoning behind their choices. It is often extremely crystal clear. They are focused on their quality of life, they are focused on their suffering.
‘I don’t ever get the sense from them, the family, or doctors, or anyone are coercing them into a decision. If anything, I’ve seen it many times the other way around. The patient is ready to let go but the family is not ready to let go, and they put various degrees of roadblocks to the patient accessing it.’
Dr Jessica Kaan, Medical Director of End of Life Washington, reinforced these claims. She told MPs:
‘I would echo those comments. We are trained to assess capacity in big ways and small ways, throughout our medical training.
‘Virtually all of the time it is the opposite way around, where the family are trying to coerce or convince someone not to make this choice… I have also never come across a case where I felt a patient was being coerced into this decision by a family member.’
In earlier oral evidence, palliative care specialist Sam Ahmedzai, Emeritus Professor in the Medical School at University of Sheffield, reinforced the same point from his extensive experience travelling to other jurisdictions, including Australia.
In a full day of evidence sessions, MPs have heard from a series of medical and legal professionals. This includes Sir Chris Whitty, Chief Medical Officer, and Sir Nicholas Mostyn.
Nathan Stilwell, Assisted Dying Campaigner at Humanists UK, said:
‘We are pleased that the Committee is taking discussions around process and safety seriously. This evidence clearly shows that MPs must focus on creating a safe, compassionate, patient-centric service. Fears about nefarious family members are simply not present in the evidence.
‘We continue to advocate for an assisted dying law that has both strong safeguards and equitable access, ensuring that all terminally ill adults who seek to end their suffering have a dignified and humane option.’
Notes
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Humanists defend the right of each individual to live by their own personal values, and the freedom to make decisions about their own life so long as this does not result in harm to others. Humanists do not share the attitudes to death and dying held by some religious believers, in particular that the manner and time of death are for a deity to decide, and that interference in the course of nature is unacceptable. We firmly uphold the right to life but we recognise that this right carries with it the right of each individual to make their own judgement about whether their life should be prolonged in the face of pointless suffering.
We recognise that any assisted dying law must contain strong safeguards, but the international evidence from countries where assisted dying is legal shows that safeguards can be effective. We also believe that the choice of assisted dying should not be considered an alternative to palliative care, but should be offered together as in many other countries.
Read six reasons we need an assisted dying law.
Read more about our analysis of the assisted dying inquiry.
Read more about our campaign to legalise assisted dying in the UK.
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