Campaigners for a change in the law on assisted suicide consistently claim high public support, but a string of recent polls and analyses have complicated the picture.
In April, Professor David Albert Jones published a blog on the BMJ website, following the introduction of Liam McArthur's Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill. The accompanying memorandum cited Dignity in Dying polling data, indicating levels of support between 77-87%.
'This is in part because the questions referred to terminal illness and included other reassurances. They also asked if people "strongly support[ed]" assisted dying or only "somewhat" or "tend[ed] to" support. Asking in this way ensures that people who are ambivalent but tend to be in favour on balance or in principle are included as supporters.'
"Strong support" was:
'55% in 2019, 45% in 2023, and 40% in 2024. It is evident that the level of strong support has declined and that a majority of Scots are no longer strongly in favour, but are ambivalent to some degree or are opposed.'
Why should this be the case?
June 2024 polling for Living and Dying Well by Whitestone Insight found that 56% of those who expressed an opinion supported a change in the law in principle, but thought there were too many complicating factors for it to be implemented safely, and when asked to indicated which of 23 prominent policy areas should be politicians' priority, legalising "assisted dying" came 22d out of 23rd, below international trade deals and tackling AI.
Both the Whitestone research and separate research found that support for a change in the law is weakest among 18-24-year-olds (backed by less than half in both studies) and King's College London data also shows that less than half of those belonging to ethnic minority communities support a change in the law. Overall, less than half want their MP to vote for a change in the law, with a sizeable minority wishing their MP to vote according to their own conscience.
Significantly, given what we know of the reality of euthanasia and assisted suicide in places like Canada:
'Three in five (61%) say they would be concerned about some people being pressured to have an assisted death if the law were changed, including a majority (53%) of those who want the current Parliament to legalise.
'And among supporters of legal assisted dying, 55% say they'd be likely to change their mind and become opponents of the policy, if it turned out someone had been pressured into choosing this option.
'Just under half (48%) of supporters also say they are likely to rethink their position if someone's choice of an assisted death was motivated by a lack of access to other care.'
Support for a change in the law comes with many caveats, and is weakening in light of the mounting evidence from abroad. Parliamentarians must confront this reality, rather than relying on simplistic polling which relies on trusting activists and administrators in the UK to achieve what their counterparts abroad have not.
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