Is the Assisted Dying Bill open to misuse?

 

I can't quite understand why it was necessary to have an Assisted Dying Bill. I have known a number of people who have been terminally ill and all of them were receiving end of life palliative care. They were given opiates to help with pain relief.

What concerns me about this Bill is the potential for misuse. There have been a number of scandals involving assisted dying already. We know that families have often been told that an elderly loved one is coming to the end of their life and would they agree to putting them on palliative care. Some refused to do so and took their relatives out of the hospital and they have lived for several years longer. A friend of mine told me that this is what happened to his elderly father who was an in-patient in a Manchester hospital. He was told his father was dying and would he agree to putting him on palliative care. He refused to do so and took his father home with him. He lived another three years.

Not many years ago there was the scandal involving the Liverpool end-of-life Care Pathway (LCP).  An independent review led by Baroness Neuberger, recommended discontinuing the use of the LCP. The review found that the LCP compromised patient autonomy, was used to "free up hospital beds" and was even used by financial trusts for financial gain. I think this means that NHS trust were given financial inducements to put people on palliative care. We also know that there were at least 456 patients who died at Gosport War Memorial Hospital in suspicious circumstances after being given powerful opiates when it wasn't medically necessary. The police are still investigating the matter.