Should assisted dying plans be replaced by better end-of-life care?

NEW SURVEY AHEAD OF CRUCIAL VOTE ON BILL

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ORE than two thirds of people feel the assisted dying Bill should be replaced with a plan for better end-of-life care, according to a survey published days ahead of a major vote on the issue.

The polling, commissioned by a group opposed to assisted dying being legalised, “blows apart the arguments that the public are desperate” for a change in the law, a campaigner claimed.

Bill sponsor Kim Leadbeater said last week that MPs should not have to choose between supporting assisted dying or palliative care as it is not an “either/or” conversation for dying people.

She said palliative care and assisted dying “can and do work side by side to give terminally-ill patients the care and choice they deserve in their final days’ and urged MPs to support “all options available to terminally ill people”.

An amendment to the Bill, requiring the Health Secretary to publish an assessment of the availability, quality and distribution of palliative and end-of-life care one year after the Bill passing into law, could be voted on on Friday.