Chancellor Rachel Reeves dodges questions on funding for assisted dying
Chancellor Rachel Reeves has declined to say whether funds would be made available to make assisted dying free at the point of use.
Ms Reeves, who gave her backing to a new Bill when Parliament had a historic vote in favour of assisted dying last month, said she is “not convinced” such a service would mean higher costs for the public purse.
But, asked on Tuesday about funding for assisted dying, she repeatedly refused to say whether it would be funded through public money.
So it's to be a cheap version of assisted dying. A DIY version perhaps, such as a kit purchased from eBay, although maybe we shouldn't speculate about how cheap it could be.
9 comments:
A couple of weeks ago I attended a public meeting on this, the guest speaker being an academic specialising in medical ethics and associated legal issue. He was of the opinion that the process would be very cheap, not least because it would, as drafted, apply to very few people.
One lady in the audience raised another issue. She used to be a secretary to a judge, and pointed out that it was extremely difficult to get one at short notice. You can't just ring one up at night and get them to sign papers in their dressing gown, like in a film. They would need to book a big slot of time to examine the case. The alternative would be to have paid for "specialists" on stand-by who deal with such cases. That would indeed be very expensive, and would, she said, lead to bias. They would become "captured by the process", and - like some doctors dealing with abortion - would just nod cases through.
Sam - the point about judges struck me as I read about the proposed process. With two doctors, process paperwork and a judge, it does sound very expensive as well as restrictive.
Those involved will probably become captured by the process, but I came away with the idea that it's partly a gesture towards something Keir Starmer has favoured for years. It will probably generate its own stories of anguish too.
A new news item https://policyexchange.org.uk/publication/the-rise-of-the-regulators/ points out the consequences of the “risk aversion ratchet”. How very British would it be to have all the people who qualify for Assisted Dying actually die in pain before the process of 'certifying' their assisted death could be completed.
You can get really cheap pillows on Ebay. The quality of the cheap ones is quite bad though, so they're only really good for, well...
DJ - it would be very British. Not unexpected by anyone, another scandal for the media and a major inquiry by the ratcheteers lasting for a number of years.
Bucko - good idea and cheap probably works best, memory foam could give the game away.
A K Haart - Oh wow, I never thought of that
It would be franker to call it "assisted suicide" I suspect. "Assisted dying" has a ring of the Guardian about it - somewhere on the mealy-mouthed to euphemistic spectrum.
dearieme - it would be franker. Or maybe the "Assisted Suicide Nudge Unit."
""Assisted Suicide Nudge Unit": too reminiscent of the KGB Open Window Squad.
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