by By David Smith MP and Blair McDougall MP, New Statesman
Two members of Labour’s 2024 intake argue that we risk creating a private market for death, undermining the founding principles of the NHS.
As the Assisted Dying Bill enters its final stage in Parliament, far too many unanswered questions remain about its final shape. What we feel certain of is that any new system will place significant costs on our NHS, whilst also creating a system of private provision that will profit financially from ending people’s lives.
We believe this nationalisation of cost alongside the privatisation of profit is deeply antithetical to the values of a Labour Government.
What we do know is this bill seeks to profoundly alter the nature of the NHS and will change what we mean by the term ‘health care’ in this country: from “Do No Harm” to “Assist Death”. The ethical, practical and financial implications of this are essentially unquantifiable. Yet, despite this totemic shift in how our society cares for the vulnerable and dying, we have no meaningful understanding of how the system will be implemented beyond the vaguest of assessments.
In the determination to pass the principle of assisted dying into law, supporters of the bill have swept aside well-founded concerns, such as the protection of children, and left current and future governments to work out the detail.
Even minor amendments to improve the bill by strictly banning advertising in the same way we do for tobacco or cancer drugs have been rejected, leaving the door open for the marketisation of death for private profit.