Dear Friend,
This week, Dignity in Dying launched a new and groundbreaking research report - Time for Choice: The truth about the UK’s ban on assisted dying.
The report reveals new data that exposes the failures of the blanket ban on assisted dying and contrasts it starkly with international evidence of safe, compassionate laws. Together, it makes an inarguable and urgent case for reform. That’s why it is vital that you email your MP with this new evidence today.
Our report reveals that:
- The average cost of travelling abroad for an assisted death in Switzerland has increased to £15,000, a staggering 50% in 5 years. This option is out of reach for the majority of people in England and Wales.
- In the absence of choice, dying people are ending their own lives - our research reveals this is happening even when people have access to specialist palliative care.
- Over half of people in England and Wales know a loved one who has suffered at the end of life.
Time for Choice shows that where assisted dying is legal end-of-life care becomes safer and more compassionate. The suffering and anxiety that dying people and their families face under a blanket ban on assisted dying is replaced by the comfort and reassurance of having choice and control. The findings are crystal clear: the ban on assisted dying is unsafe, unfair, and unregulated.
Friend, will you tell your MP about this groundbreaking research, by sending them a quick email?
Whilst there is a ban on assisted dying in the UK, many dying people are forced to take matters into their own hands, often in violent ways. To protect their loved ones from prosecution, many dying people end their lives alone. This is unsafe and cruel. In Australia, dying people are able to have these conversations in the open. They’re able to die peacefully with their families by their side.
“It took her 15 long days of suffering for her to die. This terrible experience left our family traumatised. Sadly, we came to realise that the very best palliative care she had received at the hospice could not in itself have prevented her suffering.” - Danny, whose wife Alison died of head and neck cancer in the UK in 2021
“It is not easy to lose someone dear to you. Stephen and I had been together for 35 years. But perhaps my account of the process helps you understand that it was a very peaceful, calm, safe environment for someone to end their life. People are already dying. Let them die with dignity.” - Lisa, whose husband Stephen had an assisted death in Australia in 2021
Whilst assisted dying is illegal in the UK, compassion is outsourced to Switzerland, but only for those who can afford it. This isn’t regulated. Since they legalised assisted dying, Australian membership of Dignitas has decreased and most people who have an assisted death do so at home. If they can have this choice, why can't we?
It takes just 2 minutes to email your MP, Friend, and it’s the most impactful thing you can do to help the campaign right now.
