Gruesome: Lawmaker says killing people with assisted suicide slashes health-care costs
Insists his plan to promote procedures could be 'cost-neutral'
In what may be one of the more gruesome financial arguments ever, a lawmaker in Scotland has argued that people who die through assisted suicide won’t have many end-of-life care costs, and the savings will cover the expenses of those suicide drugs.
It is the Christian Institute that reported on the arguments from Liam McArthur, a lawmaker in Scotland who designed that nation’s assisted suicide scheme.
McArthur told the Finance and Public Administration Committee of the government’s legislature in Holyrood of the “potential savings” from a lower level of palliative care would mean his bill to expand assisted suicides would be “cost-neutral.”
“Members of the committee questioned McArthur about the costings in his Financial Memorandum, published to accompany his Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill,” the institute reported.
His argument in his memorandum document states, “Community Pharmacy Scotland estimated that, as an example, one substance that may be used in such circumstances would cost an estimated £80 ($100) for each dose provided to a terminally ill adult to end their own life.”
It continued, “On the basis of the estimate of 25 people having an assisted death in year one following the bill’s enactment, rising to 400 by year 20 it can be estimated that the cost of the required substances would be around £2000 ($2,500) in year one, rising to £32,000 ($40,000) per year by year 20.”
However, the documented explained that easily would be covered because of the fact the dead people would no longer require palliative care.
“McArthur informed MSPs the memorandum acknowledged that ‘the legislation is likely to result in savings as well as costs and that broadly speaking it is anticipated to be cost neutral.'”
“This is because there is a cost associated with the processes involved in a person being assessed and potentially provided with assistance to end their own life, such as clinical and associated administration costs, and a commensurate cost-saving due to a person no longer receiving care for however long they may have lived.”
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