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”
Guest
Oh yes, of course you demand I not read your screed. You’re not demanding…oh, you’re actively Crusading already for your cause, I see. You are denying what has factually occured with midwives, trying to cynically lie for your anti-NHS campaign.
You completely ignore what others say as you utterly ignore the moral issues and demand that your standard rule, as you lie about “other bills”, as you try and blame me for your intolerance of other standard of bioethics. That you think suppression and mass firings are good “debate” really shows what you’re for, as you defend what amounts to Eugenics, because there’s no way you’d stop at this of course.
You’re not a doctor, YOU wouldn’t have to do anything but sit back an collect the money from your sponsors for this campaign. That you don’t understand the Declaration of Geneva and why it so offends the far right backers of yours is the critical point here.
You then admit that you wlll try and fire most NHS doctors. As you then make up nonsense lies about them taking the same oath, and by your Oath to Money (which apparently you’ve taken) you accuse them of “tarnishing” themselves if they don’t hold your anti-life views.
Your hatred of the patients is indeed the point. You want no NHS, right, as confirmed by your blind repeated demands for smashing the NHS while frantically making excuses and ignoring the ethical issues. You make up nonsense like “30 years down the line”, when it’d take a few years for your backers to basically kill the NHS if you hot your way.
And I need murdering? Well well. I am Jewish, after all.
Sionnan_Eilis
Wow! Are you actually reading my posts or something else entirely. ALL of your points above, ALL of your accusations are completely untrue and the proof is there for all to see. You sound a bit scary and borderline psychopathic. ‘Nuff said.
Guest
I’m reading your fanatical defence of your own brand of bioethics as a way to purge to the NHS. You keep saying that facts are untrue, and that your hatred is not on display.
Of course you see me, as Jewish, as “a bit scary and borderline psychopathic” – there’s a reason you so virulently reject the Declaration of Geneva, passed to stop the Nazi abuse of the medical profession from happening again.
Which you didn’t know about – you’re an outsider to the issue, here to end the NHS and introduce your far-out bioethics on the medical profession.
Sionnan_Eilis
Since you clearly don’t actually need my input here at all, perferring to make up whatever you choose, like accusing me of being anti semetic which I am not…how could I be when I did not know you were Jewish until you accused me of such?….I’m going to leave you to play on your own now. Interesting to see that as you get more ridiculous, you remove your name, Leon Wolfeson, and appear only as Guest.
Guest
Ah, you’re Lord Blagger.
Keep trying to hide your agenda. One day pensions, the next the NHS. Your pretend-ignorance is offensive, of course.
You go rip off more British people now, as you oppose the Declaration of Geneva…