Nuffield Trust report on assisted suicide shows it is unworkable
29 August 2025 Issued by: Christian ConcernThe Nuffield Trust today released a report titled: Assisted Dying in Practice.
The report looks at international experiences of implementing a change in the law on assisted suicide and discusses the challenges the UK health care system might face if the law is changed here.
Commenting on the report, Andrea Williams, Chief Executive of Christian Concern, said:
“Kim Leadbeater’s ill thought through bill is being rushed through parliament without proper time for scrutiny or debate. It involves changing the very foundation of the NHS so that the NHS is not just focused on treating illnesses, but also on helping patients to end their lives. This change undermines the very basis of medicine and the reason that people choose to work in clinical fields of medicine and medical care. It constitutes a massive cultural and moral change to our society which will have a huge impact on the NHS in general.
“We have argued that this bill will be very difficult to implement for all sorts of reasons. The Nuffield Report now provides solid evidence from other jurisdictions of the multiple problems faced by countries that decide to facilitate assisted suicide.
“The NHS is already stretched to the limit and struggling to provide the heavy demand on its services. Legalising assisted suicide will only add to these pressures by requiring the NHS to determine the eligibility of patients who request it and by forcing the NHS to assist in the suicide of those who qualify.
“This report highlights the multiple challenges with forcing the NHS to provide assisted suicide to anyone who is eligible.
“There would be multiple additional burdens placed on NHS staff, all of which would require training and investment. The report highlights twelve areas where further training would be needed.
“The report highlights the risks of mental health, psychological problems and the emotional impact on those involved in facilitating assisted suicide. It also highlights the additional administrative workload on clinical staff and feelings of isolation.
“The report also highlights how many clinical staff in other jurisdictions have experienced moral and ethical distress around their involvement in assisted suicide. There is also moral pressure from patients or next of kin to facilitate assisted suicide when it may not meet eligibility criteria. Some nurses admitted having to ‘reframe concepts of intolerable suffering when patients appeared well.’”
“The report notes that many people with religious beliefs are opposed to assisted suicide, and that minority ethnic groups are more likely to be religious. The NHS has a high proportion of Christian and minority ethnic staff, and the report notes that this ‘could increase the number of staff with a conscientious objection to assisted dying.’”
“There are likely to be many NHS staff who will conscientiously object to facilitating assisted suicide. This will make it very difficult to implement and create further capacity problems for the NHS.
“The report notes that in other jurisdictions, ‘capacity to deliver assisted dying services was sometimes insufficient, with not enough staff trained and willing to support assisted dying services, or insufficient capacity to undertake eligibility and other assessments needed to support the process.’ For an NHS already stretched to the limit, there is no capacity left to enable the additional provision of assisted suicide.
“The report notes that decisions of clinicians to participate in assisted suicide is made ‘more difficult when clinicians feel that healthcare services such as palliative care nor mental health care are not available and accessible.’ Currently in the UK, some 100,000 people die each year needing palliative care but not receiving it. This unavailability of palliative care will only add to the stress of clinicians who are forced to offer assisted suicide whilst not being able to offer good palliative care.
“Kim Leadbeater’s bill offers no provision for institutional opt-out of assisted suicide, contrary to the practice in other jurisdictions. If care homes and hospices are forced to facilitate assisted suicide against their values then they will be forced to close, creating further capacity issues for the health system.
“The report notes that additional funding will be required to facilitate assisted suicide and to implement assisted suicide regulation, data collection, training for all the relevant roles, and for redesigning services, and for the Assisted Dying Commissioner and associated staff and secretariat. The NHS is already short of funds. There is no spare money to fund all of these additional costs.
“There are further challenges with how providers are paid to provide assisted suicide. As the report notes: ‘the government will want to ensure that there are not disproportionate rewards for providing assisted dying.’ The prospect of the government paying providers to facilitate the suicide of their patients is sickening in itself.
“This report is a warning which shows that forcing the NHS to facilitate assisted suicide is very far from straightforward or easy. The various challenges highlighted show that it will put an already strained NHS under intolerable additional pressure. Capacity challenges are likely to be unworkable because of conscientious objection issues, as well as other issues.
“Kim Leadbeater’s bill is now set to be scrutinised by the House of Lords. We urge peers to read the Nuffield Report and to realise that allowing this bill to pass will put intolerable additional strain on the NHS. Any peer who cares about the wellbeing of NHS staff and clinicians, let alone of vulnerable patients, should oppose this bill.”
