Assisted Suicide: A Wealthy Elite Will Push Vulnerable People to Premature Death

If we were to overturn the present law banning assisted suicide, 1,000 Britons would die in this way every year. Living and Dying Well, the new think tank that has made this calculation, is right to raise the alarm. But my concern is not the numbers who would turn to assisted suicide; rather, I am worried about who these potential suicides are.

Prompted by a harrowing experience with my father, who asked me to help him die when he lay suffering in a hospital ward, I’ve spent the past year researching a pamphlet on this issue. I became more and more convinced, as I spoke to doctors, nurses, and lawyers, that the push for assisted suicide came from a strident elite. This group, articulate, well-off (or at least well-educated) and very much part of the system, knows exactly how to protect their interests. No one can push them around — certainly no one can push them into dying prematurely.'

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