Holly Baines reports on personal stories from our supporters and examines how assisted suicide would send terminally ill or disabled people the stark message that their precious lives aren’t worth living
In a week’s time, 29 November, the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill is due to have its second reading in Parliament.
This bill seeks to legalise assisted suicide for the terminally ill, but as the track records of other countries prove, it won’t stop there.
Many pro-assisted-suicide campaigners have used emotional stories to promote the bill.
However, when you strip away the claims of ‘compassion’, ‘dignity’ and ‘relieving suffering’, you are left coming to grips with the stark reality that condoning assisted suicide means embracing the idea that some lives just aren’t worth living.
And if some lives simply aren’t worth living, is anyone facing a terminal illness or unbearable chronic suffering really safe from being coerced into ending their lives?
If suicide is condoned as a reasonable exit strategy by our culture and our medical professionals, will individuals struggling with suicidal tendencies be given the adequate support they need to happily live, or will they eventually be deemed ‘lost causes’ and assisted to kill themselves?
We asked supporters to share their experiences with us and explain why they are concerned about the cultural ramifications of legalising assisted suicide, how assisted suicide would affect them or family members, and the ways assisted suicide could deprive them of the opportunity to make the most of their final years.
These are a few of their stories.
Story #1: Deafblind supporter with Asperger’s would qualify for assisted suicide under ‘intolerable suffering’
A deafblind woman with Asperger’s Syndrome wrote to share how concerned she was about this bill and the ramifications it would have on people like her.
She said: “I am deafblind Asperger and I feel very strongly about the new euthanasia bill so I want to help defeat it”.
In sharing her story, she said she hoped to “draw attention to the fact that disabled people, including veterans, are at risk when assisted death is legalised.”
Although Kim Leadbeater’s bill is initially only for those with a terminal illness and a life-expectancy of 6 months, MPs are already calling for eligibility criteria to be widened to include those facing ‘incurable suffering’.
Her experience reveals the fears of disabled people about the implications this bill will have on them in the future.
It’s very easy to see how easily people like her will be made to feel like a burden. The care for people like her is already inadequate – when some people are seen as having lives that are not worth living, it’s easy to see how people like her will be affected.
She wrote:
“It’s only going to get worse once this new legislation is passed.
“I just hope this dreadfully scary bill doesn’t get passed.”
Story #2: Ill relative wanted to die, but recovered and had many more good years of life
A supporter called Sheena shared about how her great aunt wanted to be helped to end her life during a bout of severe illness. However, after she recovered, she was incredibly grateful that assisted suicide wasn’t legal, as she was instead able to live many more years.
“I had a great auntie who had suffered all her life with a bad chest following pneumonia as a young child. As a woman in her fifties or sixties probably she fell ill again and was in hospital for some time. This was in 1960s/70s. They weren’t sure she would make it, but she did recover.
15 years later she told me this story and how at the time in hospital she wanted to ask the doctor to end her life. She thought, “I’ve had a good number of years and I’m suffering so much I just want to end things”.
She said to me, “I’m so glad that didn’t happen (she didn’t ask because obviously back then the doctor would have clearly said ‘no, we don’t do that’) and that I’ve had and enjoyed these extra 15 years”.
She went on to live for several more. If the law changes and she were in that situation today, maybe she’d have lost many years of healthy living and I and others would have been deprived of knowing her.”
Sheena’s aunt’s experience shows how severely ill people could make a decision to end their life because of being overwhelmed by their suffering.
However, recovery is possible, even when doctors say a person has only six months left to live. Intense suffering is also far from inevitable – circumstances change.
If we legalise assisted suicide, we will remove the opportunity for people to change their minds, live many more healthy years and be a blessing to others.
Story #3: Aunt suffers from Parkinson’s: assisted suicide says her life isn’t worth living
Another supporter shared her story of a close family relative suffering from late stage Parkinson’s Disease and raised concerns that the legalisation of assisted suicide would result in a culture that deems her life to not be worth living.
“My aunt has suffered from Parkinson’s Disease for many years and is now unable to do anything for herself. She is tube fed and requires nursing round the clock. She is totally mentally competent and a strong believer.
When we visited recently, we got to hug her and hold her hand. We sang songs of worship as we gathered round her bed, read favourite verses from the Bible, chatted and prayed with her.
Some might question what her life is worth? What can she give, share or enjoy? It would only take them observing the scene around this dear lady’s bed to answer those questions. The joy displayed in tiny muscle movements and her determination to form a smile couldn’t be missed. The groans of delight at seeing little faces that had grown up so much, the finger extended to point to her Bible on her shelf, the smile of peace on her face that can only be seen in someone at rest with their Lord, all such a sweet balm to our souls that here we were in the presence of a saint who was fully yielded to her Saviour and at rest knowing He would take her in His timing.
And as a fully coherent Christian, what do I know she will be filling her time with until then, totally undistracted by worldly cares? Faithful love and praise to her God and desperate pleadings for the souls of her children, grandchildren and family. And who are we to rob them of that? I wonder how many of us are held firm by the faithful prayers of those who can do little else, but whose gift to us is more than we could ever repay?”
By sharing her experience, this supporter made the case that all life – regardless of the level of independence – is worth living and should be valued and sustained rather than simply ended. Under this bill, difficult medical cases and those needing expensive care risk being coerced to opt for assisted suicide as a more economical and convenient solution than finding long-term effective care.
As recent media interviews have revealed, even MPs supporting the bill have no answers for how doctors would be able to prevent coercion. If the UK legalises assisted suicide, it will run the unavoidable risk of cultivating a culture that sees disabled or ‘less-than-ideal’ lives as meaningless and not worth living.
As Liz Carr warned in her excellent documentary, ‘Better Off Dead’, “When an able-bodied person wants to commit suicide, it’s a tragedy; but as soon as a disabled person wants to commit suicide, it’s a release.”
It’s easy to see how assisted suicide perpetuates the idea that disabled people’s lives are worth less.
Story #4: Assisted suicide would deprive families of precious memories and time with relatives before they pass
In another story, a supporter shared her experience with her parents in the final years of their lives. She argues that we only have one life to live, and that assisted suicide would deprive families of these precious last memories and would rush people into eternity prematurely.
“My parents are both in their 90s – up until Covid they were very active and enjoying life to the full. About two weeks after my mother had her second Covid vaccine she had a mild stroke (even though months before she’d had a thorough medical examination which declared her fit and well other than some hearing loss.
My mother is now in a Nursing Home and has been diagnosed with early onset dementia – I would not trade this time with my parents for anything – my dad is quite frail now but mentally active and continues to do some gardening and recently published another book!
My husband and I visit my mother daily at the Nursing Home and I have enjoyed more laughter and hearty communication than in a long time! Also, they have a wealth of good memories and family history to be shared.
Life is precious and we only have one to live before we pass over from this life to everlasting life! After death there are only two destinations: Heaven or Hell – this time of my parents life is enabling them to be confronted with their mortality and make decisions for eternity!
Seeing both my parents frail and in need of help is confronting, but God has enabled me through knowing Him and through Biblical discipleship to not be moved by my emotions, but to trust and believe the Word of God above the bad reports, in all my circumstances and walk out who I am in Christ in front of my parents.
Cutting off a life by euthanasia and abortion robs so many people of seeing God’s goodness, mercy, miracles and love in our circumstances.”
Legalising assisted suicide would inevitably deprive families of spending quality time with their loved ones in the last few years or months of their lives. Another valid and crucial concern is that assisted suicide cuts short a person’s life, and for non-Christians this has deadly eternal ramifications.
For many unsaved individuals, choosing assisted suicide means being sent into eternity before receiving the salvation offered by Christ’s death on the cross. Thus, the tragic reality is that assisted suicide’s claims of ‘compassion’ and ‘ending suffering’ in reality are compounding their suffering.
Story #5: Elderly father with dementia was able to be with family during last few days of life
One supporter shared his father’s last few days before passing away and raised concerns that, had assisted suicide been offered to him, he could have easily been persuaded to opt to end his life without realising what that really meant.
“In March 2024, my father passed away from sepsis. He had suffered from dementia for a few years prior to this, which meant it was difficult to communicate with him. Despite this, he could still acknowledge certain things and express his joy/sadness/pain.
The last week of his life was spent in a hospital bed, with me and other family by his side. He was no doubt very uncomfortable at times but received much relief from medication.
Had he been offered the option of assisted suicide, due to his decreased cognitive ability, he may have said yes, not understanding. Had this been carried out, against his family’s wishes, it would have denied us, and more importantly, him, that special time in his last week of being with his family, hearing how much he was loved, and fighting to the end (which my dad would have wanted to do).
Furthermore, despite all medical odds, a few nights before he passed away, he communicated with me by winking his eye (all he could do), in response to my questions – and in a way he hadn’t done for years.
Assisted suicide would have brought things to an abrupt and traumatic end, and would certainly not have been what he wanted, had he been able to think clearly.”
This story highlights how assisted suicide takes away any second chances for life, removes the potential for these beautiful and comforting last-moment memories, and makes it all too easy to give up on life without putting up a fight.
Furthermore, choosing assisted suicide will inevitably traumatise family members who must witness their loved-one’s premature death. The fact is that many may never have true closure or be fully convinced that their loved one wasn’t persuaded or coerced into ending their own life by carers or hospital staff who were more focused on conserving time and energy than on sustaining and valuing life.
Assisted suicide will send the message that these people’s lives aren’t worth living
Each of these stories show that every life is worth living. But legalising assisted suicide will say the opposite and will tell some people that they are ‘better off dead’.
Legalising assisted suicide will essentially dehumanise a segment of our society and relegate them to ‘burden’ status – to costly problems that need to be solved – rather than seeing them as precious lives that need to be valued and supported right until the end.
Each life is created in the image of God, and deserves to be treated with dignity, respect, and immense value from conception until natural death.
Let’s do all we can to stop assisted suicide before it becomes law.
