The rollout of assisted dying would come at the “expense” of other NHS services, the Health Secretary warned on Wednesday.
Wes Streeting said the implementation of the assisted dying bill would mark a “big change” for the health service in a significant escalation of his attack on the legislation.
Under the Bill, terminally ill adults with less than six months to live will have the right to end their own life. The substance would be prepared by a doctor, but it would be self-administered by a patient.
The Bill will have its first debate at the end of the month, marking the first time that assisted dying has been debated and voted on in the Commons in almost a decade.
Mr Streeting told Times Radio: “[Assisted dying] would be a big change. There would be resource implications for doing it. And those choices would come at the expense of other choices.”
Asked whether the NHS would have to “find money from somewhere else”, he replied: “Yep. To govern is to choose. If parliament chooses to go ahead with assisted dying, it is making a choice that this is an area to prioritise for investment. And we’d have to work through those implications.”
Mr Streeting revealed his opposition to the Bill last month, saying that the state of palliative care in the NHS is not good enough to deliver the legislation safely.
Kim Leadbeater, MP for Spen Valley who brought the Bill to parliament, told Sky News on Tuesday that the status quo was “not fit for purpose” and was causing people to take their own lives in “tragic circumstances”.
Ms Leadbeater said: “We have a duty as parliamentarians to fix things that aren’t right. The current status quo is not fit for purpose. Terminally ill people are having harrowing, horrible deaths, and even with the best palliative care their needs are not met. People are taking their own lives in tragic circumstances.”
She went on: “This Bill is about autonomy and it creates an extra level of protection.
“By the time the patient gets to the point where they can take their own life, they will have gone through a long process. They can change their mind if they want. It is not brutal, it is a compassionate process with your loved ones around you, rather than spending hours a day choking to death or vomiting. All terminally ill people want is that choice.”
Any eligible person wishing to end their own life must make two separate declarations, witnessed and signed, about their wish to die.
The process must involve two independent doctors being satisfied the person is eligible, and a High Court judge must hear from at least one of the doctors regarding the application.
Ms Leadbeater said that the “correct safeguards” were in place to ensure that patients were not being coerced into taking their own lives prematurely.
The Bill, which was published on Monday night, runs to almost 40 pages, with around 20 pages of explanatory notes.
If the Bill is passed, the UK would join the likes of Switzerland, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the US state of Oregon in enabling people with terminal illnesses to end their own lives if they wish.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has indicated that he will not pressure his MPs on the issue despite previously stating that he supports assisted dying.
Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood has also said she will oppose the Bill, saying she has has an “unshakeable belief in the sanctity and value of human life”.
High profile supporters of the Bill include Dame Esther Rantzen, who is terminally ill and revealed in December that she had joined Dignitas due to the current law.
Right To Life UK branded the proposed legislation “a disaster in waiting”, and described the proposed measures as a “monumental change to our laws”.
Campaign group Our Duty Of Care, representing doctors and nurses, has sent a letter to the Prime Minister arguing it is “impossible for any government to draft assisted suicide laws which include protection from coercion and future expansion”.
