Legalising assisted dying could create 'death clinics', warns lawyer

The lead lawyer in the Harold Shipman inquiry has urged MPs to oppose legalising assisted dying in this week’s vote because it could create ‘death clinics’.

The proposed legislation is open to abuse by ruthless GPs, Dame Caroline Swift has warned in an explosive intervention.

Doctors and hospitals could be incentivised by the cost savings of freeing up hospital beds and spending less on drugs, she says. In a letter seen by the MoS that she sent to peer Lord Alton, who has spoken against assisted dying, Dame Caroline writes: ‘Although the safeguards may seem adequate now, they are likely to be eroded over time.

‘I was leading counsel to the Shipman Inquiry, and saw how this had happened with the safeguards for issuing cremation certificates.’

The inquiry investigated the GP, who killed more than 215 patients. Dame Caroline said those safeguards became ‘little more than a “tick-box exercise”, for which the doctor was paid a fee’.

‘I fear that what will happen if the Bill becomes law is that groups of doctors [“death clinics”?] that support assisted dying will emerge and that the safeguards will gradually be eroded in the same way.’

On Friday, MPs will vote on legalising assisted dying, through a Private Members’ Bill proposed by Labour MP Kim Leadbeater.

The Bill would allow terminally ill adults expected to die within six months to get help to end their life. Two doctors and a High Court judge would have to verify that they were eligible and had made their decision voluntarily.

In her eviscerating letter, Dame Caroline says that GP surgeries and hospitals will have a financial incentive to have patients choose assisted deaths. 

Read More

Gordon Brown says death of daughter shows we need better end of life care, not assisted dying

‘In hospitals, patients who choose assisted death will free up beds, benefiting the Trust and its staff.

‘In the community, the sanctioning of an assisted death could save a GP practice the cost of several months’ medication and care.’

She cites how Shipman himself said of a victim: ‘That’s one off my drugs bill.’

The former High Court judge, who later chaired the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service, says: ‘I have some experience of misconduct within the medical profession and have little doubt that these considerations will, in some cases, influence the advice and/or opinions given by doctors.’

She also draws on the experience of her mother and grandfather dying and says: ‘The focus should be on effective palliative care.

‘If the Bill is passed, there is an obvious risk that the focus will shift away from, rather than toward, improved palliative care.’

Sir Keir Starmer has said he is ‘personally in favour of changing the law’, although this month said he had not made his mind up on how he will vote on the Bill.

Cabinet ministers including Health Secretary Wes Streeting and Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood have spoken out against the Bill, while Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner and Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson are expected to vote against it.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves and her sister, Labour party chairman Ellie Reeves, are understood to be sceptical but are more likely to abstain, sources said.

Labour MP Rachael Maskell said the Bill had too many ‘dangerous’ flaws and questioned the powers it could give doctors. She said: ‘The first question of any doctor must be “first do no harm”, and yet this Bill has the converse intent.

‘We all want to see people we love have a peaceful and pain-free death, and therefore we need to optimise palliative medicine.’