ASSISTED DYING
IN NUMBERS
What could the Assisted Dying Bill mean for the Isle of Man?
Percentage of people in Oregon who said burden on family was a key reason for deciding to end their life.
Assisted Dying legislation on the Island risks people feeling under pressure to “do the right thing” and not be a burden on their families or caregivers.
(Source: Oregon Death With Dignity Act 2021 Data Summary, p13)
500,000 elderly people are abused each year in UK, mostly by their families and often for financial reasons.
A law allowing assisted dying would put many vulnerable people at risk. No safeguards could fully protect against people being pressured into taking their lives.
(Source: The Guardian, 5 September 2015)
In 1999, 16 people died by assisted suicide in Oregon. In 2021, there were 238 deaths – a whopping 1,487% increase.
Numbers continue to grow year on year in all jurisdictions where assisted dying is legal. Legal eligibility criteria are consistently challenged and expanded.
(Source: Oregon Death With Dignity Act 2021 data summary))
The annual incidence of euthanasia or assisted suicide in the Netherlands
as a percentage of all deaths rose from 1.9% in 1990 to 4.4% (1 in every 23) in 2017.
In jurisdictions with Assisted Dying legislation - including the Netherlands, Oregon and Canada – there is a clear trend. Initial legal restrictions are broadened and the numbers increase year on year. Once the genie is out of the bottle, we won’t get it back in.
(Source: British Medical Journal: https://spcare.bmj.com/content
/early/2021/09/26/bmjspcare-2020-002573)
UK Palliative Care ranked top in the world in a quality of dying experience survey.
This surely includes our wonderful Hospice Isle of Man! Out of 80 nations, UK came top because of the wonderful work done by our world-leading Hospice Movement.
(Source: The 2015 Quality of Death Index, Ranking Palliative Care Across the World, The Economist Intelligence Unit).
Hospice Isle of Man addresses four types of pain: physical, social, psychological and spiritual.
They call the concept “Total Pain.” When a terminally ill person has all their needs met, they don’t need to die with unresolved pain. British palliative care is the world leader in this approach. Rather than creating a law to encourage suicide, let’s fund Hospice really well to enable it to do what it does best for even more people.
(Source: see endoflifestudies.academicblogs
.co.uk/total-pain-the-work-of-cicely-saunders-and-the-maturing-of-a-concept/)
25-40% of people “have episodes of reactive depression as a result of the diagnosis of a life-limiting illness.”
Symptoms of depression peak in the weeks and months immediately following diagnosis. As suicidal thoughts are a cardinal symptom of depression, there is a danger of people choosing to end their lives at a vulnerable stage. This is a particular danger in cases where depression goes undiagnosed.
(Source: House of Lords Report 86-I, Paragraph 124 (Mackay Committee Report))
The number of hours it can take to die from assisted suicide drugs in Oregon.
It’s not always quick and painless. In Oregon, time from ingestion to death varied from 6 minutes to 8 hours, with a median time of 50 minutes.
(Source: Oregon Death With Dignity Act 2020 data summary, p8)
The number of medical professionals who wrote to The Times to say: "Six months life expectancy has no clinical meaning in most terminal illnesses."
The Motor Neurone Disease Association says the six month timescale (as planned for the Isle of Man legislation) “wrongly assumes that life expectancy can be accurately estimated for people living with terminal illness.”
(Source: Six Months To Live? All Party Parliamentary Group for Terminal Illness. March 2019)
Only 5% of palliative medicine Doctors expressed support for assisted dying.
Among geriatric medicine Doctors, support for assisted dying is on 23%. The Doctors who spend most time caring for dying people are the ones who least support assisted dying legislation.
(Source: Royal College of Physicians assisted dying survey 2019 - results by specialty and respondent profile)
What
Next?
If, like us, you are concerned about the damage an assisted dying law would do to the most vulnerable people on our Island, please sign our PETITION.
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Isle of Man Care for the Vulnerable in Dying