Introducing legal assisted dying could be abused by people "who want granny and grandpa to hurry up and die", MPs have heard. In a Westminster Hall debate at Parliament today, Conservative MP for Devizes, Danny Kruger, said: "We need to keep assisted dying illegal, in my view, because, in practical fact, for many people it would narrow their autonomy and reduce their freedom substantially, because it would put them on a path that only has one destination.
"I suggest that if members think we can prevent people being put on the pathway to assisted dying by good drafting or because doctors are good people, which obviously they are, we should think about the do not resuscitate scandal we had in the pandemic, we should think about the Liverpool care pathway and then suggest that there is no risk - I think there is.
"I know doctors are good people who want the best, but if we force them to make utilitarian decisions about the best use of resources, won't they push people in this direction?"
Mr Kruger also said he worried "even more about the pressure on patients themselves to request assisted dying if it is an option" in the event they felt they were a "burden" to their families.
He added: "Talk to any hospice manager and they will quietly confirm it: there are a lot of people who want granny or grandpa to hurry up and die."
Intervening, Liberal Democrat MP for Edinburgh West, Christine Jardine, said: "Is it not the case that many of these people who are being characterised as wanting granny and grandpa to hurry up and die are in fact simply wanting their pain to end and want a compassionate way to bring that to an end?"
Mr Kruger replied: "I recognise the enormous power of this campaign and I recognise for how many people this is exactly what they want for the best of intentions - the overwhelming majority, I am sure, of the people who are campaigning for this, certainly all of the people who are campaigning for this, and the overwhelming majority of people who would imagine they would make use of this law, do it for the absolute best of intentions.
"Please can we not have deliberate misunderstanding of the points that I am making?"
Conservative former minister Andrew Mitchell described himself as a "convert to the cause" of legalising assisted dying.
He told the debate: "My own mind has been changed on this over the years, principally as the result of the number of constituents I have spoken to who have faced terrible suffering at the end of life, or who have witnessed their loved ones dying in painful and undignified circumstances. I want this to change for my constituents, I want it for myself and I want it for those whom I love."
Opening the debate, Labour MP for the Gower Tonia Antoniazzi called on ministers to properly fund palliative care alongside introducing assisted dying in law, telling MPs: "If you want to have a grown-up conversation about death we need to see an absolute commitment to properly fund end-of-life care and hospices.
"There will be those on the Government side who stand up today and say they are campaigning for dying well. Now if that is the case, you are in a position to make that happen, so please do. The palliative care system has been underfunded, please don't try and say about dying well when you can do something about it."
