Thread by @historykev

This is just death pornography - threatening those who don't support #assistedsuicide with a 'torture chamber' Like all pornography, it is dark fantasy and not very realistic. 1/ theguardian.com/commentisfree/…

Toynbee is correct to point to the often-unnecessary deaths of older people and the crying need for palliative care but the answer is better healthcare and more palliative care provision, not, like in Canada (euthanasia legal since 2016), offering death to patients. 2/

Toynbee’s other arguments are faulty. First, if we accept the ‘17 a day’ figure, that is less than 1% of all deaths in the UK. Second, it is wrong to think the problem of painful or restful deaths would be resolved by legalized assisted suicide. 3/

Evidence from the Netherlands, where the practice has been legal since 2002, with about 4.5% of all deaths are euthanasia or assisted suicide, indicates that up to 42.8% of patients suffer pain and/or restlessness in their last hours. 4/

Third, all available evidence from countries where assisted dying is legal shows that suicide rates are unaffected by legalization of assisted dying. 4/

Also unwise to use Dignity in Dying’s discredited ‘Inescapable Truth’ report and video, withdrawn after protests about its inaccuracy. One said: ‘As a nurse who has spent most of my career in palliative care I can say hand on heart that I have never seen a death like this.’ 5/

Finally, this argument is not about religion. Many of us are liberal humanists who support abortion rights for women and oppose capital punishments, but we maintain huge doubts about this issue.