Almost two-thirds of Brits think assisted dying should be legalised, poll shows

Almost two-thirds of people in England and Wales want assisted dying to be legalised for terminally ill adults in the next five years, according to a new poll.

The new study comes ahead of a bill to allow assisted dying being put before Parliament next week.

Labour MP Kim Leadbeater’s private member’s bill (PMB) is due to be formally introduced in Parliament on Wednesday.

Assisted dying will then be debated and voted on in the House of Commons next month, for the first time in almost a decade.

New polling, carried out by the Policy Institute and the Complex Life and Death Decisions group at King’s College London (KCL), found a fifth (20%) of people asked said they do not want assisted dying to be legalised in the next five years while 63% said they do.

Just under a fifth (17%) of the 2,063 adults in England and Wales polled across two days in September said they do not take a side or have an opinion on the issue.

The findings also suggested younger people are less likely to back assisted dying.

It demonstrated the changeable nature of some people’s views, with some of those voicing support saying they could change their minds if they felt someone had been pressured into choosing an assisted death or had made the choice due to lack of access to care.

The majority (85%) of those who support a law change said people having a less painful or distressing death is a very important reason for their view, while a similar proportion (83%) say giving people more dignity at the end of their life is very important.

Almost three-quarters (72%) of supporters said legalisation is about people being able to choose how and when they die.

But the majority (72%) of those opposed to change said they fear vulnerable people could be pressured into an assisted death, while more than two-thirds (69%) feel health professionals should be saving lives, not assisting deaths.

Researchers said the polling shows the “moral complexities” people feel when it comes to this controversial issue, with concerns around the risks remaining among those who are broadly supportive of legalisation.

Overall, 61% of people polled said they would be concerned about some people being pressured to have an assisted death if the law was changed, including more than half (53%) of those who want the current Parliament to legalise it.

More than half (55%) of those who support a law change said they would be likely to change their mind and become opposed if it turned out someone had been pressured into choosing this option.

Concerns around access to good end-of-life care was also a factor, the research showed.

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Just under half (48%) of supporters of a law change said they are likely to rethink their position if someone’s choice of an assisted death was motivated by a lack of access to other care.

A majority (83%) of those in favour of change said poor palliative care was an important factor in their support, including 47% who rate it as very important.

While 68% of those aged 35 and above said they supported legalisation within this Parliament, only 50% of 18 to 34-year-olds said they would support this.

The researchers suggested this could be due to the “greater salience of this issue for those at a more advanced stage of life, as well as their (an older person’s) higher likelihood of having experienced the death of loved ones”.

The government has already confirmed that MPs will have a free vote on the bill, making a decision according to their own conscience rather than along party lines.

Professor Gareth Owen, of KCL, said: “Two-thirds of the public look ready for a change in the law but preferences may be unstable in light of moral complexities and imperfect access to care."

KCL colleague Professor Katherine Sleeman said it is “critical that the debate on assisted dying considers the complexities involved in implementing this kind of reform”, including “the implications of legalising assisted dying in a context where many dying people struggle to access the care they need”.

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