I treat the very sick – and I urge politicians to vote against the deeply worrying assisted dying bill | Lucy Thomas

Helping someone to die should only be a very last resort, not a normalised part of our healthcare system

Thoughts of ending your life are a common response to human suffering. Yet with care and support, they can usually be overcome. That’s why our usual reaction to someone wanting to end their life is to try to prevent suicide – including showing them we value their life at a time when they’re struggling to do so themselves. Lord Falconer’s assisted dying bill, which will soon be debated in the House of Lords, represents a radical departure from this approach: it proposes circumstances in which we should assist someone to end their life, rather than try to prevent them from doing so. But what circumstances could warrant this?

For Lord Falconer, the answer is simple: terminal illness. In his bill, as long as someone has mental capacity and is likely to have less than an arbitrarily chosen six months to live, they can receive assistance to end their life. There is no requirement that the causes of their suffering be explored, let alone addressed, nor that they receive care or support of any kind.

Lucy Thomas is a palliative care and public health doctor

In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In the US, you can call or text the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline on 988, chat on 988lifeline.org, or text HOME to 741741 to connect with a crisis counselor. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org

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