Medical professionals sign letter opposing killing patients

More than 3,000 medical professionals in the United Kingdom have signed an open letter to Prime Minister Keir Starmer signaling their opposition to the country’s move toward legalized assisted suicide, noting that government officials shouldn’t consider legalizing assisted death because the National Health Service (NHS) is “broken.”

According to The Telegraph, the letter signers include 2,038 doctors, 905 nurses, and 462 other healthcare workers. They warn that without better palliative care, they fear vulnerable people will feel coerced to choose assisted suicide.

“The NHS is broken, with health and social care in disarray. Palliative care is woefully underfunded and many lack access to specialist provision. The thought of assisted suicide being introduced and managed safely at such a time is remarkably out of touch with the gravity of the current mental health crisis and pressures on staff,” the letter states.

Letter writers also dismiss the idea that safeguards will prevent abuse of assisted suicide, noting that a “prohibition on killing” is the only way to protect vulnerable populations. As medical professionals, they warn that the “shift from preserving life to taking life is enormous and should not be minimised.”

“Any change would threaten society’s ability to safeguard vulnerable patients from abuse; it would undermine the trust the public places in physicians; and it would send a clear message to our frail, elderly and disabled patients about the value that society places on them as people,” says the letter.

Kim Leadbeater MP is expected to publish her assisted suicide bill on November 12, just two weeks before it goes to a vote on November 29. Pro-life groups are raising the alarm, noting the incredibly short period for consideration is unprecedented for an assisted suicide bill in the country, especially when, as this latest letter shows, there is much concern from the greater medical community.

“It’s outrageous that MPs and the wider public are only seeing this Bill two weeks before it goes to a vote. What is being proposed is a monumental change to our laws, and it’s totally unjustifiable and fundamentally undemocratic to try and rush it through without proper public scrutiny,” said Catherine Robinson, spokesperson for Right to Life UK, in a press release. “With an NHS described by the sitting Health Secretary as ‘broken’, and the 100,000 people who need palliative care each year dying without receiving it, this rushed assisted suicide legislation is a disaster in waiting.”

[Editor’s note: This story originally was published by Live Action News.]

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