The ‘slippery slope’ argument we so often hear has not become a reality
The first assisted dying law came into practice over eighteen years ago in the US state of Oregon after a public referendum. Since the law’s inception yearly reports have collated and published information and data which shows how the law works, and critically, highlight that a transparent law is better than the current situation we have in the UK.
The latest report shows that last year 155 people obtained life-ending medication, while 105 had an assisted death. The most recent data we have on the death rate in Oregon is from 2013 when 33,931 people died. This means that 0.3 per cent of deaths per year are assisted.
This is a small – but significant – number of people who exercised control over their imminent death. Many more people would have benefited from openly talking about this choice with their doctor (1 in 50 dying Oregonians initiate these conversations) and simply having the peace of mind of knowing it is an option if they need it will help many people with a terminal diagnosis.
This is not the case in the UK for dying Britons. Currently a person can be prosecuted and imprisoned for up to 14 years for assisting a loved one to die. One person a fortnight is travelling to Dignitas, choosing an assisted death earlier than they would if legal in this country.
Remarkably, British people make up the second largest nationality of patients at Dignitas after Germany, which shares a border with Switzerland. For every person who goes abroad, a further ten terminally ill people are ending their life in the UK, often alone.
Kevin Davis had lost the use of his legs as he was in the last stages of renal cancer and was found at the bottom of the stairs in a pool of blood after he had attempted to end his life. His family do not know how long he lay there, possibly alive. Crucially, we must not forget that there are many more people that are currently suffering against their wishes and will die without the choice that is their right.
If Oregon has shown assisted dying works safely for over 18 years then why hasn’t the UK changed the law already? The British public overwhelmingly support assisted dying and recently Lord Falconer’s Assisted Dying Bill won two key votes at Committee Stage – the first vote in Westminster on an assisted dying law for ten years – which showed a 2:1 majority of support in the House of Lords. Now it is looking as if the only barrier to law change is time.
But a vocal minority of opponents seem determined to stop dying people having the option of assisted dying and are now putting their own spin on the latest Oregon report. The number of assisted deaths rose 44 per cent in the last year from 73 to 105, but solely referring to this does not give an accurate picture, especially as other years have seen a drop. The percentage increase sounds dramatic but the absolute numbers involved are very low, and only 0.3 per cent of deaths in Oregon are assisted.
This hasn’t stopped Lord Carlile of Berriew drawing unfounded conclusions though. Speaking to the Catholic Herald, he said:
“I regard these as alarming figures…It suggests to me that in amongst these figures there are cases of people making the decision for assisted suicide for the wrong reasons – such as economic reasons, including the cost of private health care, draining the family assets, feeling a nuisance to their children, depression.”
There is actually no basis for these ‘suggestions’ in the report, which lists the three most common reasons for an assisted death as ‘loss of autonomy’ (91.4 per cent), decreasing ability to participate in activities that made life enjoyable (86.7 per cent) and loss of dignity (71.4 per cent).
In fact the report demonstrates that the law you enact is the law you get: the criteria for assisted dying has not been extended beyond terminal illness for the eighteen years the law has been in place, so the ‘slippery slope’ argument we so often hear has not become reality. Ultimately it is up to the dying patient to choose if they want an assisted death.
This is not the debate that the public deserve. Oregon has shown that a clear and transparent law can give dying people choice while better protecting vulnerable people.
Mickey Charouneau is press officer at Dignity in Dying. Follow him on Twittter
45 Responses to “Oregon shows that assisted dying can work safely”
Sionnan_Eilis
As a member of the NHS, I personally would theorise that many would know from every single day of their working lives that death is simply a natural part of life. We ALL die. Healthcare professionals deal with death every day. Patients do not get choice every damn day…THAT is more of an issue!
Leon Wolfeson
So you see no issue in something which could be used to impose essentially an ideological requirement on doctors in the NHS.
Sionnan_Eilis
By definition, everything a healthcare professional (HCP) is expected to do may cause issues with any ideology. We are neutral. We treat people of different races, cultures, backgrounds, classes, citizen and criminal and racist or bigot. Every patient is to be treated equally no matter what the HCP may personally feel is right or wrong. The patient getting the best treatment and being involved in the decisions made about their own care is the only thing that counts. If death is correctly seen as natural and normal and not a scary taboo thing, how a person is treated as they die should be exactly the same. Best practice, appropriate, patient centered. No-one is forced to train to become a HCP. The notion that midwives who initially did not train to have to deal with certain aspects of care of the mother, such as abortions should be absolved from doing so is beyond ridiculous. All HCPs know training is a lifelong thing. We constantly update mandatory training to include new practice and we develop professionally as our roles continuously expand in direct correlation to medical advances and public expectations. My role is very different and more clinical than when I trained. I do the best I can for every patient, every day. I watch people who deal with the lack of an assisted dying bill every day. There is a need for it.
Leon Wolfeson
So you *are* demanding a wholesale purge of the medical profession. Well, fine, but of course the shortage of doctors you’re after also has an impact and you don’t seem to have considered that.
Not every doctor, of course, subscribes to exactly the same bioethics, and there is a healthy debate on the topic. PAS is against the Declaration of Geneva as sworn by a not-inconsiderable number of doctors (” health and life of my patient”), for instance (at least outside America, where “life” is often removed), and you should know WHY it’s so, too, if you really are knowledgeable on this.
Sionnan_Eilis
I’m not sure what qualifies you to assume i am demanding anything at all from my posts, let alone a purge of doctors? I deliberately did not specify doctors, nurses or any other specific role but stuck with HCP.