"It has become clear that passing the terminally ill adults (end of life) bill into law would privilege the legal right to assisted dying without guaranteeing high-quality palliative care."
"There is no effective freedom to choose if the alternative option, the freedom to draw on high-quality end-of-life care, is not available."
"Patients will feel under pressure to relieve their relatives of the burden of caring for them, a form of coercion that prioritising good end-of-life care would diminish."
"Access to palliative care is perhaps the country's worst and least defensible postcode lottery, with a person's fate depending on their geographical location."
As MPs prepare for crucial votes on the assisted dying bill, concerns about its flaws emerge. Advocates argue for patient choice, but the reality shows a lack of equivalent rights to palliative care. With over 600,000 deaths annually in the UK, many terminally ill patients do not receive adequate care. The current system reflects a postcode lottery where access varies drastically. Delaying the vote until the recommendations of a recent commission on end-of-life care are enacted could help rectify the imbalance, ensuring that dignity and choice in dying do not overshadow the necessity of high-quality palliative support.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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