Should a Government Help People Die?

Jamie Hale has been in and out of the hospital for more than half his life. The 33-year-old Brit needs a wheelchair and relies on partial ventilation and round-the-clock care. Several years ago, he was critically ill and hospitalized for six months “as a direct result of not having had that care,” he told me from the back of a car on his way to a weekly visit at a National Health Service clinic in London. “I’d be dead without the NHS,” he concludes. 

Even so, Hale—who has a master’s degree in philosophy, politics, and the economics of health—often thinks about how much his life costs the state. “I’m very aware I’m not cost-effective,” he added. “It’s very hard not to be aware you are the kind of financial burden the system is creaking under.” 

Hale is deeply opposed to the assisted suicide bill that the United Kingdom’s Parliament is voting on this week. On November 29, its members will consider whether to advance a bill legalizing assisted dying for the terminally ill with a prognosis of six months or less. If the bill becomes law, an individual could self-administer a lethal drug prescribed by a physician after two doctors and a judge have signed off on the procedure. The bill legalizes assisted suicide, but not euthanasia, which is when someone else—typically a doctor—is the one to kill the patient. 

At first glance, the law appears to have little to do with people like Hale. His condition, which he prefers not to specify, is chronic and progressive, but it isn’t terminal. Still, he’s among many disabled people, end-of-life doctors, and concerned citizens who fear the law could put vulnerable people under pressure to end their lives, and start a slippery slope toward future laws allowing euthanasia for the disabled, the poor, and the depressed.