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Assisted Dying consultation - bias report
The document below provides an analysis of the questions within the Assisted Dying consultation.
There are also several inaccuracies and causes for concern in the preamble at the start of the consultation document:
- The Select Committee referred to was written in 2006. In the 16 years since its publication, we have far more evidence to back up concerns about the introduction of assisted dying legislation.
- The distinction drawn between Assisted Dying and Assisted Suicide is artificial and an attempt to soften what is actually being proposed. (e.g. see https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/hast.1083)
- The survey which Dr. Allinson refers to was commissioned by Dignity in Dying and asks highly leading questions which again try to soften the reality.
- The wording of "Life ending medication" is misleading. The Oxford Dictionary defines medication as: "a drug or other form of medicine that is used to treat or prevent disease" - not to end someone's life.
- The preamble states: "Where assisted dying has been legalised, it has improved the quality and funding of palliative care." However, the evidence, at best, points to a mixed picture, and in some jurisdictions, to a decline in funding (e.g. see researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/POST-PB-0047/POST-PB-0047.pdf)
- "Where assisted dying is legal, the evidence shows that such laws are safe and effective." This statement ignores: multiple examples of people being offered assisted dying when they were looking instead for support in living; the law in many jurisdictions inevitably stretching to allow previously ineligible people to be killed; concerns over how long life-ending drugs take to work. (See multiple articles referenced on Assisted Dying IOM Facebook page).